Theidea behind smartphone-accessible EHRs is that individuals can lethealth-related apps access their medicaldata and better understand and control theirhealth data. (Photo: Shutterstock)

While people now have the ability to download their electronic medical records onto theirsmartphones so they can better manage their health, only a few areearly adopters, according to a study published in JAMA NetworkOpen.

But that could just be the case that not enough third-partyhealth management apps have been launched or that health careproviders haven’t begun to sufficiently market the merits ofdownloading health records, the UC San Francisco and UC San DiegoHealth researchers conclude.

Related: EHR use growing among hospitals, but patient uselags

“There are substantial federal policy efforts under the 21stCentury Cures Act and private sector initiatives to advancesolutions that allow patients to interact with their health data byfirst downloading their health record data to their smartphones,”the researchers write. “Ultimately, the vision is for the emergenceof an ecosystem in which third-party applications help patients andtheir clinicians and other caregivers convert data intohealth-improvement actions.”

The researchers analyzed data from 12 U.S. health systems thatall use the same electronic health record vendor, Epic, which alsoprovides patients with the ability to download their personalrecords to their smartphones via “Fast Healthcare InteroperabilityResources”–enabled application programming interfaces (APIs).

The idea is for individuals to then let health-related apps ontheir smartphones access their medical data so that they can betterunderstand and control their health data, more easily ensure dataaccuracy, shop for high-value health care services, avoid the needto repeatedly supply data for entry into each new health careprovider’s electronic health record and increase theirparticipation in clinical research, according to the study.

The researchers found that there were 156 new users of Epic’sonline patient portal per month per health system – though just atiny fraction of all of the portal users (a mean of 0.7 percent)were also users of the API that enables patients to send theirrecords to their smartphones.

“Because this capability is new, few applications are currentlyable to access and use the data,” the researchers write. “Inaddition, there has been little effort by health care systems orhealth information technology vendors to market this new capabilityto patients, and there are not clear incentives for patients toadopt it.”

Still, the study can be used as baseline data to track “effortsto create an ecosystem in which patients use their smartphones tomanage and engage with their health record data,” they add.

Apple has launched initiatives to streamline users’ access totheir health records, according to Becker Hospital Review. “In2018, the company launched its Health Records feature, which usesfast healthcare interoperability resources APIs to integrate withhealth systems’ EHRs and store the data in an iPhone-based app,”Becker Hospital Review writes. “More than 200 hospitals and health systems offer thefeature.”

Read more: 

• UnitedHealth, Amazon, and the race to streamlinemedical records
• Google’s foray into health records raises privacyconcerns
• Many patients don’t get much out ofEHRs