Heal, the market-leader in house calls, today supports Health Records on iPhone, which brings together hospitals, clinics, and the existing Apple Health app to make it easy for patients to see their available medical data from multiple providers whenever they choose. Heal is in-network with all major PPO insurance plans in California, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia, and is expanding to other locations across the country.
Previously, patients’ medical records were held in multiple locations, requiring patients to log into each care provider’s website and piece together the information manually. Apple worked with the healthcare community to take a consumer-friendly approach and created Health Records based on FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), a standard for transferring electronic medical records.
With the Heal app, the experience of sharing existing medical records with house call doctors is entirely effortless. After a Heal patient books their first house call, they have the option to share their Health Records with their Heal doctor. Once the patient grants permission, key parts of their health history is made available in the Heal OnCall iPad app, which is the interface of the Heal app used by Heal doctors. The patient’s health records are not stored in the OnCall app and remain secure on Heal’s HIPAA compliant, fully-encrypted servers.
“A doctor in the home sees data about a person’s environment and lifestyle that simply isn’t accessible within the walls of the hospital,” said Dr. Renee Dua, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Heal. “The invaluable insights a Heal doctor gains from the home, combined with liberated data means we can provide an unprecedented level of care that is more precise than ever before.”
The American healthcare system is stacked with costs that can be alleviated with proactive care. Nearly 200 million people suffer from preventable chronic conditions, costing a projected $42 trillion by 2030. About one-quarter of hospital readmissions rates can be deterred with effective compliance. Whether a patient books an annual physical or has just been discharged after a hospital stay, a doctor in the home can then compare that medical data to the prescriptions in the cabinets and the food they see in the fridge to create a personalized care plan.
“After a recent minor surgical procedure, I had to print and carry 250 pages of records from the specialists to my primary care doctor for follow-up care,” said Nick Desai, CEO and co-founder of Heal. “We’re constantly considering the issues our patients face in the current healthcare system, and clearly identify with many of them. This is why, now, we’re thankful for Apple making it possible for us to unify electronic data so our patients are able to share their records securely with a few taps on their phone.”
To date, Heal has delivered over 80,000 house calls and helped its patients and customers realize more than $55 million in savings. The comprehensive house call model by vetted, licensed physicians has reduced ER visits for its patients by 71 percent and identified 16,000 previously undiagnosed chronic conditions.
