Monday, 29 September 2014

EMIS Group has announced the launch of a mobile personal health record (PHR) that links the whole-life medical records of 40 million UK patients with health and fitness measurement devices and apps through integration with HealthKit in iOS 8.02. Patients from the North West London Clinical Commissioning Group will be the first to take part in a nationwide roll-out. 

The link between EMIS' Patient Access patient record software and Apple's Health appwill give NHS patients - for the first time - the ability to have a complete personal health profile in their own hands.

The revolutionary PHR will also empower citizens to manage their own health in partnership with the health professionals caring for them. With patient permission during consultations, clinicians will be able to view patient-collected data housed in the Health app alongside medical data, giving a complete health picture to enable better healthcare. The patient's PHR is stored within EMIS Group's secure data centres and is only accessible to clinicians with the patient's consent.  

Patients can already use EMIS' existing Patient Access App to share data directly with their general practitioner for a more comprehensive way to manage their health.  Now, on iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 8, patients will be able to add data to their own PHR from health monitoring apps and wearable devices such as blood pressure wrist monitors, via the Health app. It will enable them to manage all aspects of their health - from weight and fitness to life-threatening conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart, kidney and chronic lung disease.

EMIS clinical systems hold 40 million patient records and are used by over 5,000 healthcare organizations across the UK, from GP practices and out-of-hours services, to community care and sexual health services. The new mobile PHR is integrated with the company's EMIS Web software, used by 53% of GP practices and increasingly across hospital and community settings.

"This is a ground-breaking initiative, and we are excited to be innovating with the best of EMIS and Apple technology to converge the patient's lifestyle and health records with their data-rich GP record," said Chris Spencer, Chief Executive at EMIS Group. "The outcome will be more informed consultations, better clinical decisions and improved outcomes for millions of patients in the NHS."

"EMIS has gone to great lengths to ensure that the data stored in the PHR is secure and only accessible to the citizen and those who they give permission to access it," said Dr Shaun O'Hanlon, Chief Medical Officer at EMIS Group. "At all times, patients will retain the control over access to their data."

The EMIS Patient Access App is available free of charge from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.AppStore.com.

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