View Your Medical Records From Your Phone With Apple Health
iOS: Apple and some healthcare providers are trying to get patients to view their medical records more often using Apple Health.
The service, available in iOS 11.3, allows users to upload their medical records in minutes if your healthcare providers are working with a tech company. You will be able to view medical records, procedures, medications, allergies, vaccinations, laboratory results, and more.
As CNBC explains , this is especially useful for “patients who visit a large number of doctors or move to another city, since many of these accounting systems are incompatible with each other.” Now you can access all your notes right on your phone, which is also useful for people with chronic conditions or other illnesses.
Here’s how to use it:
- Open the Apple Health app.
- Click the Health Data icon at the bottom (second from the left).
- Select “Medical Records”.
- Select “Get Started”.
- Find your hospital or healthcare provider and select if available
- Log in to the web portal on a mobile site using the username and password you usually use for that provider’s site.
- Select “Allow Access”.
The data should be imported to your phone in minutes.
As CNBC explains , the benefit for patients is that you actually get free access to your medical records. “Hospitals still regularly charge people for [access to their own records] in many states, or they will refuse to share them in machine-readable format and will fax them a PDF.” In other cases, doctors do not share diagnostic information at all. Apple Health helps patients control their information.
For those concerned about privacy , health data is encrypted when sent to the Health app, and is also encrypted on your device when it’s locked. Apple also notes that it does not “create, receive, maintain, or transmit protected health information for or on behalf of a protected organization or business partner.”
There is a growing list of institutions that maintain medical records .