Apple announces solution bringing health records to iPhone

Now, consumers will have medical information from various 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.

“Our goal is to help consumers live a better day. We’ve worked closely with the health community to create an experience everyone has wanted for years — to view medical records easily and securely right on your iPhone,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “By empowering customers to see their overall health, we hope to help consumers better understand their health and help them lead healthier lives.”

“Streamlining information sharing between patients and their caregivers can go a long way towards making the patient experience a positive one,” said Stephanie Reel, Chief Information Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “This is why we are excited about working with Apple to make accessing secure medical records from an iPhone as simple for a patient as checking email.”

“Putting the patient at the center of their care by enabling them to direct and control their own health records has been a focus for us at Cedars-Sinai for some time. We are thrilled to see Apple taking the lead in this space by enabling access for consumers to their medical information on their iPhones. Apple is uniquely positioned to help scale adoption because they have both a secure and trusted platform and have adopted the latest industry open standards at a time when the industry is well positioned to respond,” said Darren Dworkin, Chief Information Officer at Cedars-Sinai.

The new Health Records section is available to the patients of the following medical institutions as part of the iOS 11.3 beta. In the coming months, more medical facilities will connect to Health Records offering their patients access to this feature. Further information for health institutions is available here.

Johns Hopkins Medicine - Baltimore, Maryland Cedars-Sinai - Los Angeles, California Penn Medicine - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Geisinger Health System - Danville, Pennsylvania UC San Diego Health - San Diego, California UNC Health Care - Chapel Hill, North Carolina Rush University Medical Center - Chicago, Illinois Dignity Health - Arizona, California and Nevada Ochsner Health System - Jefferson Parish, Louisiana  MedStar Health -  Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia OhioHealth - Columbus, Ohio Cerner Healthe Clinic - Kansas City, Missouri