# Doctano vs personal health record apps

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

This is the Markdown version of https://doctano.com/vs/personal-health-record-apps.

## The short answer

Personal health record apps are not one thing. Some collect records from participating institutions, some store documents you upload, some are a folder with a nicer interface. Doctano is narrower: it reads any lab report, normalizes markers and units, trends each marker, and links every value to its source. A full clinical record is a different job.

## Three things called a personal health record

An aggregator connects to participating institutions and shows what they send. It is useful when your care is concentrated in connected systems, and it can carry more than lab work: visit notes, documents, and other records, depending on what each organization publishes.

A document store accepts uploads and keeps them in folders. The structure is yours. It holds scans, letters, and reports. It is a store first: its job is to keep the document, not to compare values or chart a marker.

A folder with a nicer interface is still a folder. The interface changes; the job does not.

These are all legitimate. They answer different questions: what did my hospital send, where are my documents, and what happened in my labs. Doctano answers the third one and does not pretend to answer the first two. The lines are not clean either. An app can aggregate and store, and a store can add a timeline. The question is which job it is built around.

## Where a record app is the better choice

- You need a full clinical record: visit notes, discharge summaries, imaging reports, letters, and the documents a hospital produces.
- Your care is concentrated in participating organizations, and you want records to arrive without uploading them.
- You want one place for everything, not one place for lab values.
- You need a connection to a health system.

For those needs, a broad record app is the right shape. Doctano is not a clinical record. It holds lab reports and the values inside them, not imaging, visit notes, or a complete history of your care. It does not connect to a portal or a health system.

## What Doctano does, and what it leaves out

Doctano accepts lab report PDF, PNG, JPEG, or TIFF files, up to 50 MB each, several at once, from any lab or region. It extracts test names, values, units, reference ranges, panels, and report dates, maps markers to LOINC codes, and normalizes names and units across labs. It classifies each result against the range printed on its own report as healthy, borderline, critical, or unknown, and a result without a usable range stays unknown. Those labels are not diagnoses.

Every value links back to the original report, and the report page has View original. The timeline and per-marker history cover every report you upload, and an overall health score per profile gives a rough summary. Profiles keep people's timelines separate. Sharing is with an existing Doctano account, and people with access can view and add reports.

DoctanoAI answers from the selected profile's biomarker values, history, out-of-range results, and report text, and may link back to reports. It does not diagnose, prescribe, or recommend dosages, and it can be wrong.

It is free, in the browser, mobile-first, with an English interface. There is no native iOS or Android app, and Google Sign-In is the only sign-in method. Export is not available yet. It also cannot see a report you have not uploaded.

That is the narrow job. For lab results, it is enough. For a complete medical record, it is not.

## Side by side

| What matters | A personal health record app | Doctano |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is built to hold | A broad record: visits, documents, notes, and sometimes imaging | Lab reports and the values inside them |
| Source of the data | What participating institutions send, or what you upload, depending on the app | Reports you upload |
| Any-lab PDF or photo | Varies by app; some accept uploads | PDF, PNG, JPEG, or TIFF, up to 50 MB each |
| Cross-lab normalization | Varies by app; not the category's focus | Marker names and units |
| Trend for one marker | Varies by app | Per marker, across every report |
| Source behind a value | Varies by app | Every value links to its original report, with View original |
| Visit notes and imaging | Possible, if the app connects to a source that sends them | No. Lab reports only |
| Asking questions | Not the category's focus | DoctanoAI answers from your values, history, and report text |
| Family profiles | Varies by app | Separate profiles in one account |
| Export | Varies by app | Not available yet |

## The honest recommendation

**Use a personal health record app if** you need visit notes, imaging, discharge summaries, or a full clinical record, your care is concentrated in connected institutions and you want automatic records, you want one place for every document, or you need a connection to a health system.

**Use Doctano if** your main question is what your lab values are doing over time, your reports come from more than one lab, you want to check a value against the page it came from, or you want to ask questions about your own results with sources.

The two can sit side by side. A record app holds the broad history. Doctano holds the lab reports in a form you can compare, normalize, and question. If a full clinical record is what you need, start there, and add Doctano for the lab history you want to compare.

## Questions

**Is Doctano a personal health record?**
It is a narrow one. Doctano holds the lab reports you upload and the values extracted from them, with a timeline and per-marker history. It does not hold visit notes, imaging, or a full clinical record, and it is not a replacement for the record your clinician keeps.

**Can Doctano connect to my hospital or health system?**
No. Doctano does not connect to a portal or a health system. You upload the report you already have, and Doctano reads it. If automatic connections are what you need, a record app built around them is the better fit.

**Does Doctano replace my doctor's records?**
No. Doctano is not a clinic, healthcare provider, laboratory, or medical device. It organizes and explains the reports you upload. It does not diagnose or treat, and it does not replace the record your clinician keeps.

**Can I keep records for my family in one account?**
Yes. Profiles keep people's timelines separate, and sharing is with an existing Doctano account. People with access can view and add reports.

## Links

- [Compare hub](https://doctano.com/vs/)
- [Homepage](https://doctano.com/)
- [Privacy Policy](https://doctano.com/legal/privacy)