Kaiser Permanente: Will all our medical records soon be accessible via an app?

In the UK some of our medical information is transferred between GP surgeries, hospitals and medical centres via computer, but some we have to carry around on our health cards and letters and some we seem to just have to remember and repeat again and again whenever we meet a new doctor or nurse. Although the system is probably meant to work much more smoothly than that often it doesn’t and important medical history about past illnesses, operations and allergies could get lost in the ether or forgotten about, which could have pretty disastrous consequences.

According to Medgadget, a large healthcare organisation based in the US called Kaiser Permanente is set to make important medical information, history and other important details about its users accessible via a simple and dedicated app, which would be a much more easy and effective way to keep track of your health. The Android application (and mobile version of the website too) will allow more than nine million patients all over the globe to access their medical information wherever they are from their mobile device, including lab results, secure email access to doctors, ordering of prescriptions and scheduling appointments.

The app doesn’t just allow you to keep track of your own health either, if a small child has health complications or you’re looking after an elderly relative you can also use the app to monitor their health and keep their records on hand too.

George Halvorson, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Permanente said:

“This is the future of health care. Health care needs to be connected to be all that it can be. This new level of connectivity is happening real time, and it is happening on a larger scale than anything like it in the world.

“The fact that a Kaiser Permanente patient in an emergency room in Paris or Tokyo can simply pull out their mobile device and have immediate and current access to their own medical information is an evolutionary and revolutionary breakthrough for medical connectivity.”

If you’re part of the Kaiser Permanente organisation you can download the Android app, or access the mobile website now. However, if you’re not we don’t imagine it’ll be too long before more companies and health practices start giving you the option to keep your medical history safe in the palm of your hand.