By Dave Castro
Nashville, TN
Six hundred miles away in the nation’s capital, hundreds of technologists are trying to solve the challenge of storing and sharing patient health history across many potential healthcare providers by creating a new monolithic software system. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on this venture and recent proposed legislation would mandate a deadline of 2016 for completion of this Department of Defense project.
Roger Baker, former Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explained the project’s importance succinctly: “[The] ability to have a more comprehensive record can do life-saving things, frankly.” In a conceptual test of a nationwide health information network, a private-sector doctor was sent information on a patient from the Veterans Affairs hospital. The doctor was surprised by the revelation that his patient had a particular allergy. In the patient’s previous visit to the Federal VA hospital, the allergy had been recorded, but the private-sector doctor had been without access to the information. Being less equipped to ensure the patient’s safety, a routine course of treatment could have led to a devastating outcome. (1)
Most military records finally became electronic records in 2004. That was the same year that Randy Farr and Bruce LeFew, local owners of EaseMD Systems, became the top resale and support vendor for a leading electronic medical records (EMR) manufacturer in the US, and helped dozens of private-sector doctors move to the new standard.
After incorporating EaseMD as a supplier of EMR systems from eClinicalWorks, EaseMD helped to drive the adoption of EMRs. The primary design of this new technology standard was to streamline the doctor’s workflow, capture data for records and compensation, and to increase the doctor’s ability to see more patients per day. But with electronic data in a more accessible format, medical staff could also better organize and analyze data, enabling better diagnosis and treatment options for patient benefit as well. While recent regulations require patient access portals in EMR’s for self-serve review of health history, many patient portals are not yet user friendly, and only enable interaction with health data entered or stored by their current doctor. Therefore, the majority of patients will not access their lifetime history of health data through these portals, nor are these portals designed to facilitate patients’ transfer of their health history into the EMR system of their new primary physician. Control of patient health data is still mainly with the primary physician, not with the patient.
Patient empowerment is the next trend. As a patient, would access to your full lifetime record of doctors’ observations and notes on your health be of value to you? The insurance company will only pay a doctor for his service if he records the details of the visit, so why shouldn’t the patient who finances the visit get better access to it? When data is electronically recorded and provided to patients, they have more comfort with their course of treatment, but also more flexibility to take their health record with them to a doctor of better skill or reputation.
In light of these trends and the proliferation of mobile devices, Randy and Bruce saw a new opportunity in the healthcare industry: empowering patients with instant, mobile access to their own health data. Their innovative solution is a mobile app called Healthspek. It provides a securely stored and completely shareable lifetime health record designed with an emphasis on patients’ control of their health data. The Healthspek product empowers patients to personally own their health records, with access and ability to share those records with any healthcare provider they choose. If a patient were on a cross-country trip to Alaska and misfortune landed him in the emergency room, his bedside physician would have immediate access to his full health record, significantly improving the timeliness, quality and the safety of his healthcare experience.
Actually, Healthspek customers find their doctors are just as grateful for the solution. “My doctors love this app. When I come for a visit I have everything at my fingertips,” says one of their customers in North Carolina. Around the country, many Healthspek customers are saying the same thing. The opening story in this article was about sharing case information between a military doctor and a private-sector doctor, but the significant need for secure and shareable health records between all potential care providers has long been acknowledged in the medical industry.
Healthspek is available for iPad in the iTunes App Store. It is a fully supported and easy to use secure personal health record. It includes all your doctor visits, diagnosis, allergies, and prescriptions, which you access and control. If you have an Android based device or another platform, you may not be long in waiting. Healthspek is seeking additional investment to enable support on some of the additional platforms consumers are already asking for. For more information go to www.healthspek.com
1. US Dept of Defense, “DOD, VA Announce Joint Health Record Milestone,” http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=116437
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