Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) said this week it is introducing a feature allowing customers to obtain, view and keep medical records on their iPhones, continuing the company’s experimentation into the healthcare market.
Electronic health records will be available within the company’s Health application, with 12 different healthcare organizations already agreeing to make their records available to current customers.
Records viewable on the mobile devices were created based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standards, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company said. Medical data stored on iPhone devices are encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode, Apple said.
“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. By empowering customers to see their overall health, we hope to help consumers better understand their health and help them lead healthier lives,” Apple COO Jeff Williams said in a press release.
Participating medical institutions include Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Medicine, Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai, Philadelphia’s Penn Medicine, Danville, Penn.’s Geisinger Health System, San Diego’s UC San Diego Health, Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, Dignity Health, Jefferson Parish, La.’s Ochsner Health System, MedStar Health, Columbus, Ohio’s OhioHealth and Kansas City’s Cerner Healthe Clinic, Apple said.
“Streamlining information sharing between patients and their caregivers can go a long way towards making the patient experience a positive one. 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,” Johns Hopkins Medicine CIO Stephanie Reel said in a prepared statement.
“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,” Cedars-Sinai CIO Darren Dworkin said in prepared remarks.
Last month, Apple was reported to be developing an in-house ECG for its Apple Watch that would compete with the recently approved KardiaBand made by AliveCor.
