DrChrono Supports Health Records on iPhone, Allowing Users to View Health Records in the Apple Health app
DrChrono’s open FHIR API now allows for the secure transfer of patients’ available health records from the OnPatient personal health record (PHR) into the Apple Health app, streamlining the process of accessing personal medical data for patients who are using both OnPatient and iPhone.
“You go into the Apple Health app, you search for a participating provider, you type in your OnPatient authentication credentials, and then patients are able to easily view their available medical records, next to the rest of their health data,” Daniel Kivatinos, COO and co-Founder of DrChrono said.
Privacy and security are key priorities when it comes to the transfer of personal health data. Health Records on iPhone was designed to protect patients’ privacy through utilizing a direct, encrypted connection between the user’s iPhone and the healthcare organization. Downloaded health records data is stored on the iPhone itself and encrypted with the user’s iPhone passcode, Touch ID or Face ID. This feature will be available to all iPhone users whose medical providers use the DrChrono EHR platform and who have elected to participate in Health Records on iPhone.
“There are so many iPhone users we are instantaneously empowering,” Kivatinos said. “We have thousands of providers in DrChrono and we are doing 400,000 appointments a week, which is easily 3% of the appointments in the U.S.”
These users can now have direct access to their health records, and will receive a notification whenever their data is updated. This simple and secure transfer of health information mandated in the 21st Century Cures Act is what Kivatinos believes consumers will start pushing for to become a healthcare industry standard.
“Patients are going to start to just expect their health records to be available from their smartphone. We’re going to see a massive shift over the next five years where, in scenarios such as when there’s an emergency or you need to check something quickly, you’ll be able to look at that information in a snapshot on your iPhone.”
Kivatinos also notes that the value of a comprehensive and easily accessible PHR is immense, especially when patients may have extended periods of time between appointments or are seeing different providers. Health Records on iPhone logs the source of each record and when it was downloaded, allowing for easier coordination and transparency. Moreover, patients can also view available health records from organizations that don’t use DrChrono, in one central view.
“OnPatient is a platform for DrChrono users, which is great, but when a provider wants to see a patient that’s coming from someplace else, generally there’s some friction there,” Kivatinos said.
“Now if all of that data is consolidated on the patient’s iPhone, they can have better conversations with providers, and that allows the provider to just give better care.”
To learn more, check out the press release here.