Health records at your fingertips? There’s an app for that

Christiana Care Health System 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 records from multiple providers whenever they choose.

“In our digital world, we are meeting our patients’ expectations that their health records should be available to them as readily as their newsfeeds, videos and social media,” said Randy Gaboriault, MS, chief information officer and senior vice president for Innovation and Strategic Development at Christiana Care. “Health Records on iPhone puts the ownership of health records where it belongs – with the patient.”

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 health care 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.

Now, using Health Records on iPhone, patients can have medical information from participating 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, Touch ID or Face ID.

“Health Records on iPhone is a powerful tool to support patients in their care,” said Edmondo J. Robinson, M.D., MBA, FACP, chief transformation officer and senior vice president for consumerism at Christiana Care. “This is a catalyst for important conversations between patients and health care providers. With their health information literally in their pockets, patients are empowered for more well-informed conversations and clinicians have the benefit of instant information from a validated data source.”

“FHIR opens the door for other aspects of health care and health information to be more portable and at the touch of a button,” said Barbara Stout, information services manager, of Clinical Application Services in Information Technology. “We are excited as we continue to explore possibilities that can best serve our patients all along their health care journeys.”

Christiana Care is a leader in making electronic health records accessible, secure and transparent for patients. For example, in another initiative Christiana Care ascribes to open notes, which means patients can read physician notes from their visits as part of their electronic health records. Including open notes in the electronic health record is still rare across the nation.

Christiana Care’s transparency efforts also include consumer-generated star ratings and patient reviews in its Find a Doctor website, which help people to make informed decisions about which health care providers they choose.