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iHealth Personal Health Records
iHealth, the pre-eminent personal health record service in the U.S., will provide consumers with automated medication histories and updates based upon a collaboration announced today between SureScripts and Medem. The expanded iHealth service will reduce medication errors, responsible for thousands of deaths each year in the U.S., empower consumers and their healthcare providers with more accurate information, and move the country dramatically closer to achieving the President's goal of a secure electronic health record for every American.
Accurate and secure online personal health records ("PHR's") have been universally lauded by government, consumers, and healthcare leaders in the U.S. as a key to improving healthcare quality and efficiency while empowering consumers to better engage in their own care. The iHealthRecord service, launched last year by Medem, the national patient-provider communication network founded by the AMA and U.S. medical societies, offers a secure iHealthRecord directly via the Internet and also through the 90,000 physician practice web sites on the Medem network. iHealth allows not only consumer-sourced information to be stored in the PHR but also professionally sourced data from market-leading sources integrated into iHealth such as Surescripts' new medication history service and TouchWorks, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) from Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) .
The announced integration with the SureScripts medication history service moves the iHealthRecord's overall value forward dramatically by giving consumers a single source for accurate medication information for themselves and their families, all available in their own private and secure iHealthRecord. iHealth's patient-centric and patient-controlled access to data, combined with its unique authentication process and privacy oversight by the iHealthAlliance will further ensure that patient privacy remains paramount.
"Consumers want and need to have better access to their family's health information via personal health records ideally provided by their own doctors and hospitals. Particularly in cases of emergencies such access can mean the difference in health outcomes," noted Nancy Dickey, MD, AMA Past President and Chairman of the not-for-profit iHealth Alliance, that oversees security, privacy, and data use on the iHealth network. "Today's announced integration with the SureScripts medication history service is an important step in making sure that personal health records are regularly updated and accurate."
SureScripts today announced the launch of their new medication history service, which will securely aggregate medication histories from all participating community pharmacies and make this data available via a confidential and private service to patients and their authorized healthcare providers.
"We believe that the new medication history service being launched today in collaboration with our national pharmacy partners demonstrates our shared commitment to improving patient safety as well as the quality of U.S. healthcare," stated Kevin Hutchinson, SureScripts CEO and a member of Secretary Leavitt's AHIC group. "We are pleased to be working with Medem and their medical societies, provider organizations and many other iHealth partners to bring this service to consumers."
The enhanced iHealth service will not only make critical information available accurately and securely to patients, families and healthcare providers, but it can also serve to decrease medication errors and increase medication adherence by automatically sending medication reminders and education messages to consumers regarding their specific medications. Surveys show that nearly half of medications prescribed in the U.S. are not taken by patients, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in additional healthcare costs annually. Poor patient understanding, forgetfulness and inadequate instructions have been identified as leading causes of inadequate medication adherence. The new iHealth medication services are targeted directly at these challenges.
"Today's announced integration of iHealth with the SureScripts medication history service is one in a series of new relationships designed to deliver professionally-sourced data into the iHealthRecord and expand the functions and consumer value of iHealth," noted Edward Fotsch, MD, CEO of Medem. "We share the goal of delivering standards-based, secure and interoperable PHR services to consumers as a foundation element of improved healthcare and enhanced data sharing in the U.S., and we are achieving that goal with our industry, healthcare provider and community pharmacy partners."
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