Patients can now have a more active role in managing and storing their medical documents and information through the use of online portal myHealth. 

New features available on the portal allow patients to upload medical records, view notes on their medical history made by their doctors and keep tabs of their medical information. 

Launched back in 2012, the myHealth portal allows patients and their doctors to access their medical records online. Through the use of the e-id and password, patients can access records such as government hospital inpatient case summaries, upcoming and previous hospital appointments, vaccination records and medical image reports, such as X-rays or CT scans.

The portal also provides a live chat service for patients.  

On Tuesday afternoon, users received an email informing them of four new features added to the portal.

One is a Patient Summary, which allows patients to see essential health information managed by their linked doctors. For doctors, the feature allows them to record important health data such as allergies and intolerances, medical devices, family history and obstetric history.

Another new feature on the portal is the Symptom Diary, which allows patients to track and document symptoms directly online. Patients can log the date, severity of the symptom, duration and even describe the symptom.

The symptom look-up contains over 250 symptoms and can be searched in Maltese and English. While linked doctors are not notified about the Symptom Diary, patients can notify them to look at the Symptom Diary entries, should  they wish to do so. 

The portal also allows patients to upload and store health documents directly on the myHealth portal. Previously, only doctors or specialists could upload such documents. Now, patients can upload their medical reports, even if they are carried out in private clinics or facilities abroad. A linked doctor can also view the documents. 

Another new feature allows patients to see written notes by their linked doctors and provides them with the opportunity to control the privacy levels of these notes.