Free personal national health record launched

The new iHealthRecord was launched this week as a result of a multi-year effort led by Medem, a national physician-patient communication network, and a coalition of national healthcare leaders. This new secure, interactive, personal health record will now be available for use by any American, according to a release.

The iHealthRecord allows individuals to electronically connect more closely with their physicians by housing critical personal health data for use by healthcare professionals regarding current health conditions, medications, past surgeries and allergies as well as end of life directives. The new standards-based iHealthRecord suite has a number of features that its designer hope will increase medication adherence, enhance continuity of care and improve patient-physician communication.

The system also will provide patient education programs, automated condition or medication reminders, and notices of FDA-related safety warnings and recalls. These patient education programs have been designed in partnership with the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, CDC, FDA and other consulting experts.

With this system health information will be updated and maintained by patients directly, or through a physician's electronic medical record system or health plan.
   
iHealthRecord is now available to anyone in the U.S., for free, and is now accessible from nearly 90,000 physician practice web sites, leading physicians groups, and www.ihealthrecord.org.
   
Following the announcement of iHealthRecord, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions released its plans to be the first electronic health record (EHR) to integrate with the system.

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