Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) is continuing its journey into the healthcare industry, saying yesterday it moved the Health Records functionality in its iOS-based Health app out of the beta phase, allowing all patients of 39 US health systems direct access to their electronic health records.
With the update, individuals belonging to the chosen health systems will be able to actively view electronic health records from various organizations in a single view, and will be able to receive notifications when that data is updated.
The health records stored on the phone are encrypted by the user’s iPhone or iOS device passcode, Apple said. The company added that it is hopeful that the new functionality will help patients have more informed conversations with their physicians and family members, and enable better-informed future decisions.
Participants in the program include NYU Langone Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cerner Health Clinic, CoxHealth, Adventist Health System, BayCare Health System, Cedars-Sinai, Scripps Health and Stanford Medicine, amongst 30 other systems across the US.
“Any time you can put information in patients’ and doctors’ hands and allow there to be more informed decision making, that is the best of all,” Stanford department of medicine chair Dr. Robert Harrington said in a press release.
Last month, Apple reportedly began collecting data it could use in pursuit of FDA approval for an iOS-based health and heart monitoring program.
