Apple Health Records rolls out in iOS 11.3 to praise from doctors in 39 health groups
Apple's Health Records has rolled out in iOS 11.3 and is now available for patients in 39 different health groups covering hundreds of thousands of patients across the United States.
The new Health Records feature was previously available to patients who joined the Apple Beta Software Program and used iOS 11.3. With Thursday's update, patients from health institutions who use the feature can view their medical records simply by updating their iOS software on their iPhone.
In what Apple calls the "Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States" providers AtlantiCare, Geisinger Health System, Johns Hopkins Medicine, LifeBridge Health, NYU Langone Health, Partners HealthCare, Penn Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc., Valley Medical Group P.C., plus the combined Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine all have compatibility with the feature.
In the midwest, the groups listed by Apple include Cerner Health Clinic, CoxHealth, Mosaic Life Care, Nebraska Methodist Health System, OhioHealth, Rush University Medical Center, Southwest General Health Center, Truman Medical Centers, and The University of Chicago Medicine.
In the south, Adventist Health System, BayCare Health System, Duke University Health System, MedStar Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Mission Health, Ochsner Health System, Ortho Virginia, TSAOG Orthopaedics, UNC Health Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and WVU Medicine have enabled the feature.
In the Western U.S., patients of Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, Eisenhower Health, Providence St. Joseph Health, Scripps Health, Stanford Medicine, UC San Diego Health, UC Irvine Health have the feature available.
"People hand you all sorts of things these days, and more data is almost never bad, but when they show up with paper, how do you summate that," asked Dr. Robert Harrington from the Department of Medicine at Stanford. "It is a labor intensive, very tedious task."
Harrington said that Apple's Health Records is "an important maneuver for patient empowerment and the way the world needs to be."
This information retrievable from the iPhone or iPad 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.
The new Health Records feature was previously available to patients who joined the Apple Beta Software Program and used iOS 11.3. With Thursday's update, patients from health institutions who use the feature can view their medical records simply by updating their iOS software on their iPhone.
In what Apple calls the "Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States" providers AtlantiCare, Geisinger Health System, Johns Hopkins Medicine, LifeBridge Health, NYU Langone Health, Partners HealthCare, Penn Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc., Valley Medical Group P.C., plus the combined Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine all have compatibility with the feature.
In the midwest, the groups listed by Apple include Cerner Health Clinic, CoxHealth, Mosaic Life Care, Nebraska Methodist Health System, OhioHealth, Rush University Medical Center, Southwest General Health Center, Truman Medical Centers, and The University of Chicago Medicine.
In the south, Adventist Health System, BayCare Health System, Duke University Health System, MedStar Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Mission Health, Ochsner Health System, Ortho Virginia, TSAOG Orthopaedics, UNC Health Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and WVU Medicine have enabled the feature.
In the Western U.S., patients of Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, Eisenhower Health, Providence St. Joseph Health, Scripps Health, Stanford Medicine, UC San Diego Health, UC Irvine Health have the feature available.
"People hand you all sorts of things these days, and more data is almost never bad, but when they show up with paper, how do you summate that," asked Dr. Robert Harrington from the Department of Medicine at Stanford. "It is a labor intensive, very tedious task."
Harrington said that Apple's Health Records is "an important maneuver for patient empowerment and the way the world needs to be."
This information retrievable from the iPhone or iPad 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.
Comments
Probably never see it here in NZ given we still don't have TV Shows or News but also because the software systems in the health sector are pathetic. Mind you neither are the legal systems. I remember a project in 2005/2006 where I was installing brand new machines with Windows 2000. Over 10 years since M$ stopped supporting it.
Now we just need more clinics getting onboard...
But, for me anyway, the whole thing has a fatal flaw that I do not think Apple can or will correct:
Significant pieces of my health care data are either incorrect or out of date. For example:
I have a diagnosis of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Yet I have haven't had either for 4 years -- ever since I adopted a healthy diet.
Another is angina -- which I haven't had for 5 years since I started a serious exercise program.
There are other errors such as a medication that was added erroneously.
Apple says to contact your health care provider if any corrections are needed. And, over the years I have done that -- with zero success. What is added to the health record tends to stay there. And, aside from being out of date and simply wrong, many diagnosis are simply added in order to satisfy an insurance requirement so they can get paid.
So, frankly, at this point. I am better off with paper copies of lab tests and images that I share on an as-needed basis.
And besides, if I want to see my records, I can simply go to MyChart for the particular provider -- so it's not like those records are not already easily available.
But, one area that can be very helpful and accurate is Lab Tests -- where it can collect and consolidate lab tests from multiple labs. That should be both accurate and helpful.
And again, this is not to trash Apple. Instead, they are trying to organize a pile of random garbage -- and there's only so much they can do there...
(And, by the way, I am a healthcare professional -- so I know and understand that system from both sides)
As for your example of a fault — old diagnosis’ being listed...that’s not a bug. It is part of your medical history, regardless if you’ve treated it since then. It’s still on your paper file too, somewhere.
Fail to see how youre “better off with paper”. This follows me and is far easier to recall and I needn’t worry about which doctor or clinic I saw to get the results. Once it’s in wider use anyway.
And MyChart is just terrible, both the app and website look and behave like they were designed in the 90's. A perfect place for Apple to come in and clean up the mess.
The problem with dumping garbage data into the Apple health record is not the fault of Apple. It's the fault of our health care system where electronic medical records were designed and built to facilitate billing rather than promote health. So, the old saw applies one more time: GIGO (Garbage in -- Garbage out).
Therefor you're better off with paper because with paper incorrect or obsolete data can be excluded when presenting information. You can't do that when you simply dump one electronic medical record into another.