AA few weeks ago, I posted a note about "Big Tech" trying to enter the healthcare market (see: What Are the Consequences of Big Tech Entering the Healthcare Market?). Here's a quote from that note:
My own view about the future of Big Tech in healthcare, in addition to the equity deals, is that it will focus on healthcare wearables....The reason for this is that personal devices ...are well understood by the Big Tech companies, certainly Apple, and they know how to market them to consumers. What they probably do not understand is the mindset of healthcare executives and their general lack of understanding of IT accompanied by their continuing insistence on control of patient options. The attraction of selling wearables to healthcare consumers is that the latter will, in time, begin to lobby aggressively for integration of healthcare data into hospital databases. Hospitals executives, in collaboration with EHR executives, have been in a "go slow" mode regarding interoperability of EHR databases and the integration of external data into them. When patients begin to lobby aggressively for such changes, it will be harder for the hospital executives to say no.
Now comes news from CNBC that Apple has plans to enable consumers to download EHR records to their iPhones or Apple Watches (see: Apple will let you keep your medical records on your iPhone or Apple Watch). Below is an excerpt from the article:
[Apple]...is releasing the test version of a new product that lets users download their health records, store them safely and show them to a doctor, caregiver or friend....It all works when a user opens the iPhone's health app, navigates to the health record section, and, on the new tool, adds a health provider. From there, the user taps to connect to Apple's software system and data start streaming into the service. Patients will get notified via an alert if new information becomes available....The company confirmed that it has contracts with about a dozen hospitals across the country, including Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Penn Medicine and the University of California, San Diego.....The lack of interoperability has made it a challenge for consumers to access high-quality care and has led to unnecessary medical errors. Improving the experience Apple is working with electronic medical record companies, notably Epic Systems, Cerner and AthenaHealth, to make it easier for people to view that information on the iPhone. That way, they can simply pull it up and suggest their doctor take a look (see: Could Apple Be Trying to Develop a "Patient Portal" for the iPhone?)
I don't believe that Epic, or any of its major hospital clients, will let Apple get near any substantive patient data. Hospitals view such data as proprietary to them and most state laws currently reject the notion that patients "own" their hospital data (see: What Is Meant by Healthcare Consumers "Owning" Their Medical Records). Epic does support ER interoperability between hospitals but facilitates the process mainly for other Epic hospital clients to create a kind of proprietary Epic health network. Moreover, hospitals and their EHR vendors like Epic will surely assert in response to this Apple initiative that they make patient personal records readily available to patients via hospital portals (see: Patients Often Lukewarm about Patient Portals; Problems with Training?; Could Apple Be Trying to Develop a "Patient Portal" for the iPhone?).
I believe that Apple is barking up the wrong tree by seeking access to EHR data and should alternatively focus on the collection and analysis of data generated by consumers using their iPhones and wearable devices (see: Microsoft Publishes Guidelines for "Health Wearables"; Apple Watch "Gifted" to Insurance Policy Holders; Any Gotcha's with the Deal?). iPhones can also be used, of course, to access an individual's hospital health record via patient portals. Farther in the future as these wearable devices and home analyzers becomes more functional, hospitals may see the wisdom of approaching Apple and asking for wearable-generated consumer data to be integrated into their EHR databases.
Addendum on 1/26/2018: Apple can win electronic medical record game with Health Records in iOS 11.3: Here's 7 reasons why
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