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Years from now we may look back on March 29, 2018 as the day that changed health care in America.

Apple launched its iOS 11.3 update for iPhone, which includes the beta release of the new Health Records feature. It resides within Apple’s pre-existing Health app. Health Records allows consumers to see medical records from multiple providers on their iPhone, providing secure, portable, and convenient access. How convenient? Accessing your medical records will be as easy as opening an e-mail and newly created health records are automatically pushed to your iPhone.

As Apple noted when it announced Health Records in January:

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.

To enable the new Health Records, Apple worked closely with the big EHR players—Cerner, Epic, and athenahealth, among others. Apple also found some of the most prestigious health systems in the country to join in the initial beta release. I recently talked with MedStar Health and UNC Health Care to understand their goals for the partnership and expectations for Health Records.

MedStar Health
Pete Celano, director of consumer health initiatives for the MedStar Institute for Innovation, started the conversation by noting, “With Health Records, some 90 million iPhone users in America can gain access to their medical records, and this medical record liquidity may hasten myriad new approaches to health care delivery in the U.S.”

There’s a lot going on in that sentence and so I asked Pete to unpack it. He pointed out:

• First, the liquidity of the medical record will be a huge patent satisfier. The record is with you and easily accessible wherever you are, as long as you have your iPhone. But liquidity is more than portability, it’s also the aggregation of diverse records across multiple providers. All your data could be available in one place, and in your pocket on your smartphone.
• Second, the high convenience/low friction availability of your patient record in electronic format means the patient can engage providers in new ways, including the inevitable “AI” (Artificial Intelligence) front-ends that will spring up in front of some providers.

Pete added a couple other interesting perspectives on the new Health Records and MedStar Health’s desire to be at the forefront of innovation in this area:

• Today the health record comes out of the EMR, landing on the patient’s iPhone. Over time, what the patient can do with this always-current record might significantly expand.
• And today, we’re seeing the rise of AI, which means computers will increasingly assist providers. The AI could radically lower the cost of care, and make it far swifter (bringing down the “mean time to an appointment”).
• Pete concluded by saying that the health app when working in concert with wearables, such as the Apple Watch, also might prove a game-changer.
  

• First, if you can find a way to get the data to the patient in a way that meets the patient’s needs, then that patient (and family member) will become involved with their care. Apple’s strength lies in its ability to present data in a context that patients and family members find simple, understandable, and, therefore, usable. Health systems have the patient record and information and Apple has the consumer-friendly delivery platform. Combine that with the medical record and you have a potentially transformational partnership.
• Second, and perhaps more importantly, patients can easily add their own data to Health Records—making it a richer, more valuable repository. And when patients take the step of adding their own data, that is the very definition of engagement. The challenge then becomes getting patient-reported data back into the health system’s provider record.