Cleveland Clinic harnesses Apple’s Health Records, promoting patient record accessibility

Recently recognised as a national leader in paediatric care, world-renowned health organisation, The Cleveland Clinic has now adopted Apple’s Health Records, in order to support patients in their everyday healthcare management.

The organisation joins close to 30 hospitals who want to make healthcare data accessible to patients to drive long-term, positive outcomes by harnessing Apple technology.

Placed alongside current application, MyChart, encrypted patient data is placed into the user’s hands through digitisation, where lab results, medications, procedure information, as well as data relating to allergies and long-term conditions can all be viewed.

Harnessing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) to support the dataflow from medical records to other digital sources, the tools will also support patients in organising medical information received from various organisations and centralise it into one core record, where the user can then share this with family members or care givers.

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MyChart will also enable patients at the Clinic to view past and upcoming appointments, request medication and, most importantly, contact providers if required, the clinic has stated.

“When patients have direct access to their personal health information, they have the opportunity to live healthier lives,” said Amy Merlino, M.D., a maternal-foetal medicine specialist and Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Medical Information Officer.

“They are able to track important health factors, such as weight or cholesterol or blood sugar, to determine their own personal trends over time. They are able to easily see a combined view of their information from multiple health systems, as well as have the ability to share their healthcare history with other providers.”

The organisation is responsible for a number of medical breakthroughs, such as the first face transplant in the US, and has now become the first medical centre in the country to adopt a new pacemaker system, developed by Medtronic. Bluetooth wireless technology will link the technology with the user’s smartphone, in order to deliver essential healthcare data to providers.