The Mayo Clinic today debuted support for the Apple Health records feature available on the iPhone, allowing Mayo Clinic patients to add their medical records to the Health app.
Health Records is a feature that's designed to allow patients to view and aggregate all of their health data in one easy-to-access spot on the iPhone. More than 700 institutions and 12,000 care locations now offer support for Health Records in the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Mayo Clinic patients who have a Patient Services Account can access that data through the Health app using their Patient Services username and password. The feature is opt-in and available as an option for Mayo Clinic patients with an iPhone.
"There are more ways than ever for patients to be actively engaged in their health care, and smartphone apps can be helpful for accessing records and tracking daily fitness and diet," says Steve Ommen, M.D., medical director of Experience Products for Mayo Clinic's Center for Digital Health. "We want patients who are interested in these apps to be able to use them securely and enhance their health care at Mayo Clinic."
Health Records are downloaded onto the iPhone using an encrypted connection, with the data stored on the user's device and encrypted with a passcode to ensure everything is kept private. Health Records data is not available to Apple.
Top Rated Comments
Back on topic, I really think Apple is making the right moves here. Our phones are our most personal devices and they‘re already where we perform secure tasks like banking. The Health app is already a home for our health stats coming from the Apple Watch and other health devices like smart scales, blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, etc. Having lab results in the same place makes perfect sense.
I’m currently looking for a new family doctor and whether they’re plugged into the Health app will be a deciding factor on which clinic/doctor I go with.