Medical Records on the IPhone Debuts at Health IT Expo

Doctors with an iPhone or iPod Touch will be able to view patients' electronic health records using a new application available on Apple's Apps Store.

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions created the app, called Allscripts Remote, so physicians will be able to help patients no matter where they are. A doctor called for an emergency in the middle of the night, for example, would be able to access a patient's health records immediately on their iPhone so they could talk with emergency room staff.

The doctor could also use Allscripts Remote to fax a patient's medical summary to the emergency room, complete with any notes the doctor deemed vital to include.

The software includes ePrescribing to a patient's regular pharmacy.

But doctors will only be able to make use of Allscripts Remote if their hospital or clinic already uses Allscripts' main software product lines, Enterprise or Professional editions of Allscripts' Electronics Health Records.

With access to a patient's entire medical record, the iPhone and iPod touch application also allows doctors to view lab results and other data as it comes in and make treatment decisions from outside their office.

The U.S. economic stimulus package passed in February includes about US$19 billion in direct spending for health IT projects. President Barack Obama has cited electronic health records specifically as one way to improve the U.S. health care system.

Allscripts announced the new application at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition, which runs from April 4 through 8 in Chicago.