Yes, history of medication is very useful.

In facts doctors do like to have history of 'everything': family health, previous illnesses, previous admissions (into hospitals or major treatments: operations, therapies, ...), and so on. These days, history of where and how we live (chemicals, environments, financial stresses and so on), what we have been eating, playing, wearing, ... may reveal useful information on possible causes of our 'medical conditions'.

The problem is of course the vast amount of information on each and every patient will overwhelm even fast-reader doctors. Doctors do not really have that much time to do 'homework' before seeing (5 minutes) and prescribing medical treatments (2-3 minutes) to each patient (10 minutes including 'hello' and 'see you later').

IT systems can help here in collecting, storing, searching and reporting patients' information. Accurate data collection is a problem. Graphic data is another major headache.

Medical reports as they are today are full of 'jargon' that only a few doctors can understand --> patients have no part in looking after or becoming participants in their own health --> medical treatments are mystery black-boxes. Plain and Simple reports (with colour coded information and or graphics) that patients can also understand (eg. too much Potassium printed in red and linked to course of actions to reduce Potassium [e.g. bananas, ...] ).

Plain and Simple medical reporting lets patients take parts in look after themselves; reduces time hence costs; allows information sharing (social networking) among patients and medical providers to converge to 'best practice' (treatment for patients and doctors); ...

I am sure we can sit down and list a few more good things. But let us focus on the key ingredient 'Plain and Simple' information that patients -- ordinary people can understand. In the longer term, people will be able to do more in looking after themselves -- by themselves.

;-)