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Managing Your Health Records Should Be As Easy As Managing Your Money

If you’ve ever had to deal with a health problem more serious than a cough, you know that keeping track of your medical records is a pain. If your doctor works for a major hospital, she may have a decent website where you can log in and, say, check your latest blood-test results. But moving information from one physician to another can be a slog that requires multiple phone calls bugging office managers to fax over files, because parts of the health care industry still rely on technology that felt retro in 2002.

Thanks to Apple, some of those frustrations may become a thing of the past. This year, with uncharacteristically little fanfare, the company rolled out a feature on the iPhone’s…

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Featured

 Your Health Records Don't Belong To You. It's Time You Demand Them!

Despite years of rhetoric, patients have never really been at the center of the health care universe ― at least not since the introduction of electronic health records (EHR). And this has become increasingly obvious in the fight for access and control of patient medical data.

Articles of Interest

Accessing health records on your iPhone is a dream and a nightmare

Owning your personal health data can come at a cost.

It's Your Right To See Your Medical Records. It Shouldn't Be This Hard To Do

At a time when many insurers and health information technology companies are busily assembling databases of hundreds of millions of medical records, Americans find it difficult to get access to their own.

Your Health Care Information Is Insecure — And Extremely Lucrative On The Black Market

And there’s very little you can do about it.

A tale of two hospitals that adopted Apple’s Health Record app

Apple's Health Record app allows patients to pull in their healthcare info from multiple providers onto a single record they can share with clinicians, regardless of where they work. Here's how that's working for two hospitals.

Apple Dives Into Complex Field: Your Medical Records

With its leap into the electronic health-records field, Apple Inc. is trying to solve a problem that has vexed tech companies for years: simplifying disparate networks of medical information and putting more data into the hands of consumers.

Connected Medical Devices, Apps: Are They Leading the IoT Revolution — or Vice Versa?

THE CONCEPT OF the Internet of Things, or IoT, is spreading its wings wider and stronger in the current IT scenario, and is gradually taking part in every facet of our lives. Look at the way the healthcare industry wants to be connected with each and every thing associated with it.

Electronic Health Records: Don't Get Sick Without One

Storing and retrieving your health and medical information couldn't be easier. And you can carry it with you anywhere you go. Here's our picks for the EHR that may work for you!

Give Up Your Data to Cure Disease

HOW far would you go to protect your health records? Your privacy matters, of course, but consider this: Mass data can inform medicine like nothing else and save countless lives, including, perhaps, your own.

Health Care Apps Offer Patients an Active Role

IF you have young children, you’ve most likely endured caring for an ear infection or two. Or perhaps you’ve experienced a mysterious rash. Those situations generally mean a trip to the doctor’s office and time away from your job, if you work outside the home. But what if you could snap a photo of your rash, or your child’s ear canal, and send it to your doctor? That’s the idea behind a new breed of apps and devices that increasingly put medical tools in the hands of consumers.

How Apps Can Help Manage Chronic Diseases

Hospitals and doctors have identified digital tools that can assist patients in dealing with ailments such as diabetes, heart disease and lung disease. The early results are promising.

How Mobile Apps Connect Physicians and Patients

It’s a brave new world for mobile apps in healthcare, with new possibilities emerging every day in areas such as patient empowerment and practice portability. Yet, according to Michael Nusbaum, MD, founder of mobile application MedXCom, one of the most beneficial aspects of mobile applications could very well be better communication between doctor and patient.

Mining Electronic Records for Revealing Health Data

The monitoring and analysis of electronic medical records, some scientists say, have the potential to make every patient a participant in a vast, ongoing clinical trial, pinpointing treatments and side effects that would be hard to discern from anecdotal case reports or expensive clinical trials.

New Data Rules Could Empower Patients but Undermine Their Privacy

Giving people access to their medical records via mobile apps is a major milestone for patient rights, even as it may heighten risks to patient privacy.

Siri, Am I About to Have a Heart Attack?

Big data could provide early warning of disease—if medical records can learn to talk to one other.

Why Data Management Just Might Save Your Life

Imagine a world in which your health information is automatically collected and shared between your doctor, surgeon, hospital, and insurance company — confidentially, seamlessly, and in real time. In this utopia, healthcare providers and medical researchers can also securely access this data to streamline operations and discover novel cures and innovative therapies. This is the promise of the vital union of information technology and healthcare.

Your Health Data Isn’t as Safe as You Think

Silicon Valley’s rush into the health-care business is challenging the antiquated protections of Americans’ medical histories

Resources

Apple Health App

Enabling your patients to get their health records on iPhone can help them more actively participate in their health and help drive overall awareness of your patient portal.

Healthspek

Manage your medical information and access it anywhere.

HealthTap

A safe, secure place for all your health information, Immunizations, procedures, allergies and more: store your health activity in a HIPAA-secure environment online and access to it all at the click of a button or the pinch of a mobile device. We’ll sort it for you, timeline-style, to make it easy to present to your doctor at in-person appointments.

Medfusion Plus

The free Medfusion Plus health record app lets you gather all your family’s patient portal health information into one organized, convenient place that you can carry with you always!

PicnicHealth

ALL your records from ALL your doctors. Sign up in 5 minutes. We do the legwork. Clean, patient-friendly health timeline.

iBlueButton

iBlueButton is the mobile embodiment of the Blue Button initiative to enable patients to easily access and share their health records with their physicians, anywhere and anytime.

mEMR

With mEMR, aggregate your and your loved ones’ medical records, from any healthcare provider or institution, and generate a comprehensive timeline of your health on a single screen.

MyChart

See your medications, test results, upcoming appointments, medical bills, price estimates, and more all in one place, even if you've been seen at multiple healthcare organizations.

MyHealtheVet

My HealtheVet is a free, online Personal Health Record that empowers Veterans to become informed partners in their health care. With My HealtheVet, America's Veterans can access trusted, secure, and current health and benefits information as well as record, track and store important health and military history information at their convenience.

MedXcom

Securely text with your healthcare providers.

StatPearls

Several commercial applications are available that allow an individual to maintain a PHR, and some also allow integration of this data with the individual's EMR/HER, allowing them to take better charge of their own health.