Online tool to create your family medical history

Blue indicates family members with diabetes

Diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other health conditions run in families, so knowing your family’s health history can help you and your health provider take steps to reduce your risk of developing many preventable conditions.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has created an online tool that allows you to easily put together a family history that you can save to your computer and use to identify and track diseases and conditions that may run in your family.

The tool takes you through creating a family medical history in a series of easy-to-follow steps. You can then use the program to display your family tree and a chart highlighting conditions that run in your family.

You can then save the tree and charts in your personal records and take them your health-care provider. 

Dr. Steven K. Galson, Acting U.S. Surgeon General, suggests that when you get together with family this Thanksgiving you should take a few minutes and work together to build a family medical history using the online tool.

“Tracing the illnesses your grandparents, parents, and additional blood relatives have suffered from can help your health care provider predict diseases and disorders from which you could be at risk,” Galson said.

To learn more:

• You can find the “My Family Health Portrait” tool at www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/.
• Visit the Surgeon General’s Web site to learn the importance of knowing about your family’s health history http://www.surgeongeneral.gov. 

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