The government unveiled an updated EHR-ready version of the Surgeon General's Internet-based family health history tool on Tuesday.

"This valuable tool can put family histories to work to improve patient well-being and the quality of care," said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

"The tool is built on health information technology standards that make it more convenient for consumers and more useful for practitioners," Leavitt said. "It is ready for use in electronic health records. And its software code will be openly available to other health organizations so they can customize and build on its standards base."

The Surgeon General's My Family Health Portrait was originally launched in 2004, but the first version was not standards-based. 

"Family history has always been an important part of good healthcare, but it has been underused," said Acting Surgeon General Steven Galson, MD, a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service. "Today, with our growing knowledge of genetics, family history is becoming even more important."

The new tool will help consumers and clinicians alike, Galson said. It will serve as a platform for developing new risk assessment software to help in the screening and prevention of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions, he added.

The first adopter of the HHS-developed tool is the National Institute of Genomic Medicine of Mexico (INMEGEN).

Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez, MD, director general of the institute, will release the Mexican Spanish-language version of the tool in Mexico City later in January.

The Indian Health Service, an agency of HHS that was instrumental in developing the new Surgeon General tool, will adapt it into the IHS care system.
           
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF), a cancer advocacy organization, said it would link to the tool.

"A strong family health history tool can be an important element for guiding medical decision-making, especially in the area of cancer screening, prevention and early detection," said LAF founder and Chairman Lance Armstrong.  "This tool will further the capabilities of electronic health records and takes a significant step toward improving clinical care."

The new tool was developed under Leavitt's Initiative on Personalized Health Care. It will be hosted by the National Cancer Institute, where the caBIG initiative is pioneering health IT networks and software sharing.