At WWDC 2021, Apple previewed advanced consumer health and wellness tools that gives iOS 15 users the ability to securely share their data with their physician. This move to digital health data has been one that many in Silicon Valley have dreamed of and it seems that it is finally here in a way that will actually benefit patients.
The Current Landscape
The current digital landscape of the healthcare industry is one of cumbersome web portals that are more physician centric versus being patient centric. The biggest problem with the systems is that few patients actually use them. In fact, in a recent survey by the American Medical Association, they found that 63 percent of adults who were insured and made a health care visit in the previous 12 months had not visited a portal during the preceding year. One of the top reasons cited for not using a patient portal was the lack of an online medical record.
Why Apple’s Announcement Matters
With this announcement from Apple, this changes the place where patients access their medical records. Instead of going to an online patient portal, they are now going right to their Health app on their iPhones. The dynamic is changed to be more patient centric and allows them to access their medical records in the way they can also access their heart rate and step count data. The patient health data collection is also expected to be better due to the always on nature of iPhones and Apple Watches.
How Medical Providers Need to Respond
While we are still in the early stages of this announcement and how this will ultimately impact the medical community, several of the major digital health records companies are already working with Apple to support these new features when iOS 15 and watchOS 8 ship this fall. Our recommendation is to see what your current patient portal provider is doing in response to this upgrade. What we would also recommend is to look at your current online experience that you provide to your patients. Updating your website to a modern medical web design can make communicating these new features much easier.
