Apple posted a feature article March 30 about how U.S. doctors are putting their patients in charge with Apple’s Health App Records feature.
Apple begins with Dr. Harrington. When Dr. Robert Harrington, cardiologist and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford, sees patients, they frequently pass him stacks of printed medical records and spreadsheets, hand-drawn charts or their smartphone with notes and photos. Occasionally, they’ll enter his office with grocery bags full of medications to walk him through the details of their care.
“People hand you all sorts of things these days,” he says, “and more data is almost never bad, but when they show up with paper, how do you summate that?” He’s hired a skilled team to take on the task of pulling it all together.
Starting March 30, patients of NYU Langone Health, Stanford Medicine and nearly 40 other health systems representing hundreds of hospitals and clinics can view their medical records right from their iPhone. The updated Health Records section within the Health app helps consumers see medical information from various institutions organized into one view and receive notifications when their data is updated. This information can help patients better understand their health history, have informed conversations with physicians and family members, and make future decisions. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode.
As a self-proclaimed “data guy,” Dr. Harrington says “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.”
The new Health Records feature was previously available to patients who joined the Apple Beta Software Program. March 30, patients from nearly 40 health institutions listed below can view their medical records simply by updating their iOS software on their iPhone.
