In the not-so-distant dystopian future, every health care company you deal with -- from your hospital to your insurance company to your corner pharmacy -- may begin linking to sites like Google Health so that you can import all of your health records automatically and automatically share them with your doctor. At present, however, only a few companies have the ability to link to your Google Health profile. But if you happen to fill your prescriptions at, say, Longs Drug Stores, you can instantly import a list of all your medications by linking your drug store profile to your Google Health profile. To use this feature, click Import medical records and browse the list for health services providers that you deal with. If and when you find one, click Link to profile.

Drug interactions
Once you've entered any drugs you are taking or imported prescription info from a linked pharmacy, Google Health will scout for any possibly dangerous drug interactions and alert you by placing either a hexagon or a triangle with an exclamation point beside the Drug interactions link in the left menu. The service will also alert you to any notices from your linked service providers.

Find your doctors
You can add your family practitioner, surgeons, or any other doctors you visit to your profile by clicking -- what else? -- Find a Doctor in the left menu. Choose a type of practice from the drop-down list, then type your doctor's name in the search field and click the Search button. When you locate the doctor you're looking for, click Save to medical contacts to add them to your profile.

Add emergency contacts
To round out your profile, add an emergency contact by clicking Medical Contacts and choosing Create a contact from the next screen. Enter your spouse, parents, or any other person who you'd like to have notified in the event of an emergency, and include as many detailed notes about them as possible to help your health care provider communicate with them.

Print it out
Once you've entered all of your data into Google Health, all that remains is to keep it updated and choose Print from the upper-right corner of the screen to print out a fresh copy for your health care provider, family members, or anyone else you'd like to entrust with your data.

PC World is an InfoWorld affiliate.