# Family health records: what to keep for each person

> Doctano turns the lab reports you already have into one private, source-linked health timeline, with an AI that answers from your own results.

A family record is not one record. It is several records that happen to live in the same household.

This is the Markdown version of https://doctano.com/guides/family-health-records. The HTML page is the canonical version.

Keep a separate record for each person: their reports, dates, labs, ranges, medicines, and allergies. A single shared folder mixes people and makes a value ambiguous. Access should be granted per person, deliberately, and removed when it is no longer needed.

The shared folder works until it does not. The first time two people have a test in the same week, or a result is uploaded under the wrong name, the folder stops answering the question it was created for.

## Why one folder breaks

- A value in the folder with no name on it cannot be attributed.
- A report uploaded to the wrong person becomes part of the wrong history.
- Everyone who can open the folder can see every person reports.
- Search returns a mix of people, and a trend becomes hard to follow.
- When access should be removed, it cannot be removed for one person only.

## What to keep per person

At minimum: name and date of birth, conditions, current medicines, allergies, lab reports with dates and ranges, doctors, and insurance. Children add vaccination and growth records. Adults may add advance care documents if they have them.

## Children's records

A child's record changes with age. Keep vaccination and growth records, and keep the reports that explain a diagnosis or a treatment. As the child becomes an adult, the record should be handed over, and consent for sharing should be renewed with them rather than assumed.

## How access should work

Grant access per person, not per household. Decide who needs to see the record, what they need to do with it, and when the access should end. A helper who uploads reports does not necessarily need to see every result. Remove access when the task ends.

| Person | What they need | Access to give |
| --- | --- | --- |
| You | Your own history and the records you own | Owner |
| Partner | Their own record, and shared children if agreed | Their own profile, plus the children profiles you choose |
| Child | Their own record as they grow up | Hand over when they are old enough |
| Parent | Their own record, managed with consent | Their profile, shared with named helpers |
| Sibling | The parent's record, if the parent agrees | View or edit, per the parent's decision |
| Clinician | The facts for this visit | A printed one-page summary, not account access |

## Naming and structure

Use one folder per person, and a file name that carries the date, lab, and panel, for example 2026-03-14_lald_pathlabs_lipid.pdf. Keep the original file, not only a screenshot. The same rule works in a paper folder, a cloud drive, or an app.

## What Doctano does

Doctano keeps a separate timeline per profile. You can create a profile for each family member and share it with an existing Doctano account by email, with view or edit access. The owner can remove access, and removing a profile removes its timeline, including for people it was shared with.

## Family records, answered

**How should I organize family health records?**

One record per person, with the reports, dates, labs, ranges, medicines, and allergies for that person. Keep access per person, and remove it when it is no longer needed.

**Can one Doctano account hold several people?**

Yes. Each person gets a separate profile and timeline. Share a profile only with people who need it, and check the selected profile before uploading a report.

**Who can see a shared profile?**

The owner and the people the owner has shared it with. There are no public profiles, and the owner can remove access from the profile sharing screen.

**What should each person's record contain?**

At minimum: name and date of birth, conditions, medicines, allergies, lab reports with dates and ranges, doctors, and insurance. Children add vaccination and growth records.

**What happens to a shared profile if the owner deletes it?**

Deleting a profile removes it and its timeline, including for people it was shared with. Account deletion removes the profiles the account created and their linked data.

## Limits

**A family record is not a diagnosis.** It keeps the facts together. Check important values against the original report, and ask a qualified professional about anything that worries you.

## Links

- [Homepage](https://doctano.com/)
- [Lab report tracker](https://doctano.com/lab-report-tracker)
- [Records for elderly parents](https://doctano.com/guides/lab-records-for-parents)
- [Organize your reports](https://doctano.com/guides/organize-lab-reports)
- [What is a personal health record?](https://doctano.com/guides/personal-health-record)
- [Is it safe to upload lab reports?](https://doctano.com/guides/is-it-safe-to-upload-lab-reports)
- [All guides](https://doctano.com/guides/)