Becker's Hospital Review

43 CIO / HEALTH IT Apple Adds Medical Records to Health App By Julie Spitzer A pple plans to integrate patient health records into its Health app in an at- tempt to make it easier for consum- ers to review their medical data from multiple providers, the company announced Jan. 24. In the latest iOS 11.2 beta, iPhone Health apps will include a "Health Records" section. Patients who have medical information from various institutions will be able to organize their data in one bucket that covers aller- gies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals. is will enable patients to share their up-to-date med- ical information with providers, caregivers or anyone else they choose. Users will also re- ceive notifications when their data is updated. e health records section of the app is based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources guidelines, a standard for transferring elec- tronic medical records. Apple will not see the data unless the user elects to share it, Apple COO Jeff Williams told CNBC. "Our goal is to help consumers live a better day. We've worked closely with the health commu- nity to create an experience everyone has want- ed for years — to view medical records easily and securely right on your iPhone," Mr. Wil- liams said in a press release. "By empowering customers to see their overall health, we hope to help consumers better understand their health and help them lead healthier lives." Apple is also working with EHR vendors like Epic, Cerner and athenahealth to better inte- grate records with the iPhone while abiding by FHIR protocols. e vendors "have been an enabling, and not a blocking factor, and we appreciate that," Kevin Lynch, Apple's vice president of technology, told CNBC. "We're pleased to be a part of this collabo- ration as Apple works to make health data more accessible, portable and interoperable for patients," Epic's Vice President of Patient Engagement Janet Campbell told Becker's Hospital Review. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine, Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, Philadel- phia-based Penn Medicine and nine other par- ticipating hospitals are among the first to make this beta feature available to their patients. n Amazon Is Hiring a HIPAA Expert By Julie Spitzer A mazon is fielding applications for a HIPAA Compliance Lead, according to a Janu- ary job listing on its website and reported by CNBC. Last July, CNBC reported the e-commerce giant had a secret healthcare team — dubbed 1492 — that is exploring new technology opportunities in health- care, including both hard- ware and software projects. However, Amazon has yet to publicly address the health team. Now, Amazon is seeking an "experienced HIPAA professional who will own and operate the security and compliance elements of a new initiative." The HI- PAA Compliance Lead will work with Amazon's prod- uct managers, software developers, bizdev and legal teams to ensure its services comply with the privacy law. This suggests Amazon may be looking to work with outside part- ners that manage person- al health information, ac- cording to CNBC. Though there have been speculations about Ama- zon's entry into healthcare — whether that be through pharmacy or technology — the company may be look- ing for a healthcare privacy expert to equip its Alexa voice assistant for the in- dustry, CNBC reports. Alexa is not yet HIPAA com- pliant, meaning develop- ers can't record patients' lab results or other health information. Amazon Web Services' health lead Oxa- na Pickeral addressed this at a September event pro- moting Alexa applications to help patients with dia- betes. "While Alexa and Lex (the technology powering Al- exa) are not HIPAA-eligi- ble, this (challenge) has provided us an opportuni- ty to envision what is pos- sible," she said. n Hospital CIOs Weigh in on Most Promising, Overhyped IT Trends By Jessica Kim Cohen D espite growing inter- est in blockchain de- ployment in health- care, almost half of hospital CIOs cite the technology as the most "overhyped" health IT trend, according to an Im- pact Advisors survey. For the survey, the Naperville, Ill.-based health IT consul- tancy asked 56 hospital and health system CIOs from the College of Healthcare Infor- mation Management Execu- tives organization about their attitudes toward emerging technologies in the health- care space. Here's how CIOs responded when asked to identify the IT trend with the most potential to make a "tangible, positive" impact on healthcare within the next two years. 1. Fast Healthcare Interopera- bility Resources and applica- tion programming interfaces: 50 percent 2. Natural language process- ing: 16.1 percent 3. Cloud computing: 14.3 percent 4. Machine learning: 12.5 percent 5. Don't know or no opinion: 5.4 percent 6. Blockchain: 1.8 percent Here's how CIOs responded when asked to identify the most overhyped IT trend in terms of its potential to make a "tangible, positive" impact on healthcare within the next two years. 1. Blockchain: 48.2 percent 2. Cloud computing: 23.2 percent 3. Don't know or no opinion: 10.7 percent 4. Machine learning: 7.1 per- cent 5. Natural language process- ing: 7.1 percent 6. FHIR and APIs: 3.6 percent n

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