My Family Health Portrait

Family health history is a powerful screening tool, so it is important to keep the information up-to-date and organized. Does It Run in the Family? gives you the “why” and “how” behind collecting your family health history, and we shared other tools for getting the conversation started. My Family Health Portrait gives you the “where.” The online tool is a product of the office of the US Surgeon General. Using My Family Health Portrait you can:

  • Enter your family health history.
  • Print your family health history to share with family or your health care worker.
  • Save your family health history so you can update it over time.

 

My Family Health Portrait makes it easy to organize your family health history information. It is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. It is simple to fill out and creates a “pedigreefamily tree for you. It is private – none of your information is stored within the application. After you fill in your information, it is available only to you for downloading. After that, it's up to you whether you want to share the information with family members or your healthcare provider.

If you choose to share your family tree with your relatives, they can use your information as a starting point to create their own family health history. Sharing your story will help relatives understand their family health history. In turn, they might be able to give you more information about your health history. Putting the whole picture together will help you and your relatives:

  • Identify risks due to shared genes.
  • Talk to each other about health.
  • Summarize health information to give to healthcare providers.

 

You might not have health information on all your family members now, but your Family Health Portrait is a living document. You should update it whenever you learn something new. 

Visit https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/ to start using the Family Health Portrait tool.