Apple today announced it has expanded its Apple Health Records feature to 39 health systems enabling patients to view their medical records right from their iPhone by simply updating their iOS software. The announcement comes nearly two months after launching the Apple Health Records feature as part of the iOS 11.3 beta update with 12 participating hospitals.
Traditionally, patients’ medical records were held across multiple locations, requiring patients to log into each care provider’s website via a patient portal and painstakingly piece together the information manually.
The new feature using HL7’s FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specification will now allow consumers to have medical information from various institutions organized into one view covering allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals, and will receive notifications when their data is updated. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode.
In addition, patients better understand their health history, have informed conversations with physicians and family members, and make future decisions.
“Any time you can put information in patients’ and doctors’ hands and allow there to be more informed decision making, that is the best of all.” In a world where patients have more technological access to data than ever, a platform like Health Records is, in his words, “an important maneuver for patient empowerment and the way the world needs to be.” said Dr. Robert Harrington, cardiologist and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford
The full list of all health systems participating in Apple’s Health Record beta include:
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States
– AtlantiCare
– Geisinger Health System
– Johns Hopkins Medicine
– LifeBridge Health
– MedStar Health
– NYU Langone Health
– Partners HealthCare
– Penn Medicine
– Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc.
– Valley Medical Group P.C.
– Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine
