A recent UC San Diego Health online survey of 425 patients who activated Apple Health Records in 2018 and found that 78% of the 132 respondents were “satisfied with using the feature.”
The survey results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week by doctors at UC San Diego Health, one of the first hospitals and clinics to make Apple Health Records available to its patients.
96% of respondents said they could “easily connect their mobile devices to the platform,” and 90% said the “smartphone solution improved their understanding of their own health, facilitated conversations with their clinicians, or improved sharing of personal health information with friends and family.”
In the report, Christian Dameff, MD, UC San Diego Health cautions that such enthusiasm is common among early adopters of new products and solutions, and that the platforms will “need to prove that it is useful, sustainable, scalable, and actually improves health outcomes.”
Apple’s Health Records feature debuted in iOS 11.3, back in March 2018. The feature allows patients to view their medical records from multiple participating hospitals and clinics in the Health app on their iPhone. Information includes allergies, vital signs, immunizations, conditions, lab results, medications, and procedures.
Over 100 institutions now offer support for Apple Health Records in the United States, and Apple hopes to partner with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which would provide veterans access to their health information.
