Add Vancouver-based PeaceHealth to the list of local providers using Apple’s Health Records software.
Health Records is part of the Apple Health app, which can be found on most iPhones. Health Records coordinates medical data from various providers into one space. That includes data on allergies, prior conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vital signs.
Data are encrypted and also protected with a phone’s password and touch or face IDs. The program is also something patients have to opt into. If you choose to set up an account, you will receive notifications when the data is updated.
Will Weider, senior vice president and chief information officer with PeaceHealth, said he thinks Health Records points toward the future of health care, where easy, on-demand access to patient information is becoming more important.
“We’ve really been pushing greater patient convenience,” Weider said.
Weider can speak to Health Records’ usefulness, as he recently took a spill during a bike ride in Las Vegas. He had to visit a local health care provider, and they asked if he was taking any medications. Weider just pulled out his phone and accessed his medical records through the app.
“Your records come together in one place on your phone,” Weider said.
PeaceHealth was officially added to Apple’s Health Records project in December, the same month the Vancouver health care provider acquired Portland-based Zoom+Care, which provides on-demand retail and digital care through the internet and neighborhood clinics. Zoom also focuses on a more modern approach to health care, allowing patients to schedule same-day appointments at Zoom locations through their phone or computers and chat with doctors online.
“We are looking to be as innovative as possible, and meet the market where the market is at, and look at innovation as it’s applied to creating affordable access for our community,” Mike Dwyer, PeaceHealth’s executive vice president, told The Columbian last month.
Legacy Health, Kaiser Permanente and Providence Health & Services also are included on Health Records.
