Apple teaming with startup Health Gorilla for iPhone medical record plans
Apple's efforts to centralize medical records on the iPhone are being done with the help of a small startup called Health Gorilla, and will focus on making it easier to share those records with different healthcare providers, a report said on Monday.
Health Gorilla's current app.
In particular Health Gorilla is collaborating with Apple to add diagnostic data such as blood work, according to CNBC sources. The firm is said to be integrating with hospitals, labs, and imaging centers.
In the finished product, iPhone owners should be able to save and browse their own medical info, such as allergies and lab results. As needed they'll be able to share the data with providers, who might otherwise have to scramble to get it from various labs and doctors.
Last week a report indicated that Apple was "quietly" building a team and consulting with various parties to develop a records tool for patients. The technology will presumably expand on the company's CareKit and HealthKit platforms.
Health Gorilla is an unusually small partner for Apple, with less than $5 million in funding. On its website however the company says that its technology offers a "complete picture of patient health history," with a "truly universal electronic medical record."
It's still unclear how and when Apple plans to launch its new tool, since it went unmentioned at WWDC 2017 earlier this month. The company could be planning to roll it out this fall in the final version of iOS 11, if not later.
Health Gorilla's current app.
In particular Health Gorilla is collaborating with Apple to add diagnostic data such as blood work, according to CNBC sources. The firm is said to be integrating with hospitals, labs, and imaging centers.
In the finished product, iPhone owners should be able to save and browse their own medical info, such as allergies and lab results. As needed they'll be able to share the data with providers, who might otherwise have to scramble to get it from various labs and doctors.
Last week a report indicated that Apple was "quietly" building a team and consulting with various parties to develop a records tool for patients. The technology will presumably expand on the company's CareKit and HealthKit platforms.
Health Gorilla is an unusually small partner for Apple, with less than $5 million in funding. On its website however the company says that its technology offers a "complete picture of patient health history," with a "truly universal electronic medical record."
It's still unclear how and when Apple plans to launch its new tool, since it went unmentioned at WWDC 2017 earlier this month. The company could be planning to roll it out this fall in the final version of iOS 11, if not later.
Comments
A fool's errand. Very big IT/MedRec companies & V big health systems have been trying to do this for years. Between competing formats and the utterly maddening HIPPA Med Rec Privacy craziness it seems impossible. And the utterly simplistic Med Rec they allude to will be just useless- unless something truly robust which including images is what they have in mind.
If they have good technology and good management bet on Apple working with them. They have much less baggage in the way of getting things done.
If there is one shop that can disrupt an industry, it's Apple. Apple can own the entire widget and get things working while giving the middle-finger to those bureaucratic fools that always get in the way, and to other players that compete with their own bandaid attempts.
As a (now retired) home health nurse I spent 1/3 to 1/2 my time coordinating patient care with physicians and advising them of conflicting orders as well as orders that were inconsistent with the patient's conditions and diagnosis... That was particularly true when either the person had recently been discharged from a hospital (which rewrote all the prescriptions for the patient) and/or when a patient had multiple conditions and multiple physicians. Some of these inconsistencies were life threatening. Others less so...
... One sickly humorous example was a guy who had had an enlarged prostate which stopped him from urinating more than a few drops at a time who went into the hospital for a heart condition. In the hospital he didn't need his Flomax medication because he was catheterized. On his release, the hospital prescribed him a strong diuretic which made him produce urine in prodigious amounts -- but no Flomax to let him urinate. He was spending his days and nights in the bathroom trying to relieve his very full bladder! But, while the patient was acutely aware of the problem, his physcian had no way of knowing that his Flomax had been D/C'd.
Conversely, when I look at my own medical records I realize how inaccurate those records are! Often times it is a physician making a guess or writing a diagnosis so he can get paid by insurance. According to them, I have a multitude of problems (such as angina, cataracts, arthritis, degenerative bone disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc...) which simply don't exist.
... So, I have learned to manage my own records and present them to new physicians as needed and appropriate.
So, collecting and propagating this information, especially without patient knowledge or oversight to make corrections, additions and deletions, could be medically dangerous for patients. And, that doesn't even touch the area of patient confidentiality -- which, among medical professionals, doesn't exist. Conversely, physicians making decisions without knowing all the current facts is also dangerous.
Medical record propagation is very much a double edged sword.
I hope Apple approaches this area with extreme caution.