I was in my oncologist office yesterday and noticed a new poster hanging on the wall advertising an on-line system for managing health care -- for scheduling appointments, confirming appointments, locating test results, paying bills, and more. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Emeryville, California, RelayHealth is the premier provider of secure on-line healthcare communication services that link patients, healthcare professionals, payors, and pharmacies in matters that are medically non-urgent. The website also features news and customer stories and aims to improve the delivery and accessibility of healthcare to patients -- in a seamless manner.

I haven't done much with this service yet -- but I did take a short tour and made a simple search for my physician whose information promptly popped up on my screen. That part was easy. And once I register with a username and password, I will have more access to more information pertaining to me and my healthcare team. And you can too.

I have often wondered about the benefits of living in a large city. I remember being so happy that both of my sons were born in a moderately sized city, opposed to a small town, with a state-of-the-art hospital to facilitate their complicated births.

Drawing a correlation, cancer treatment is somewhat the same - if you live in London, rather than some remote area in England you have a much better chance of survival. The mortality rates are still very different across England, even after the government launched its Cancer Plan to tackle the disease. There are many variations in the ability to receive vital drugs, screening, and survival rates. Nearly 90 percent of eligible women in certain areas are obtaining the wonder drug Herceptin for breast cancer, compared to 10 percent in other areas. This is a striking difference, I am happy it is being revised.