Apple users can access their health records from some GTAH hospitals

October 20, 2020, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

COVID-19 has hastened change in the medical business and the legal business. Many labs now allow you to access your test results and imaging on your phones and now hospitals are allowing you to access your health records at some GTA locations. This e-access and portable medical file access was all promised almost a decade ago by the provincial government, but it took COVID and pressure from patients and doctors to make the changes happen.

It appears that the bureaucratic barriers and requirements that the province’s IT department control everything have been overcome by the need for information to be shared in a timely manner.

In Toronto, Apple approached the hospitals and offered them the opportunity to form part of the Canadian expansion to its Health Records feature on the iPhones.  What the innovation allows is that through the Apple Health app patients can access their own medical files electronically.

Participating hospitals include Women’s College, St. Joe’s Hamilton and Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill. The program is open for other health care institutions to sign on to as well, and Apple hopes that more will come on board.

This is a great step forward for patients, particularly those with complex medical issues seeing several specialists at multiple locations. It allows them to be in control of their own information rather than having to rely on doctors to keep them in the loop of test results and diagnosis. It should also relieve the family doctors from having to ensure patients know the status of their tests.

Issues around privacy will always be a concern, however, it seems that the glacial rate of movement from the provincial government’s IT departments has been eclipsed by private enterprise.

With any luck Android users will soon have access to their records as well.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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