Introduction

Computers and large databases have been around for some time. But only now are we finding ways to take full advantage of it. Consider health care. Individual health records have been online for a decade (health patient portals). But their primary purpose has been to provide individuals with their health data.

But there is money to be made: in this era of big data, industries all around the world are starting to figure out how to fully embrace it. The healthcare industry is following suit as demonstrated by the show of support for Apple’s new Health Records feature.

So far, 12 major healthcare providers have pledged support to Health Records. These 12 include:

So why has it taken a decade to figure out how to use and profit from this data? Because it has always taken a while to figure out how to use new big data. And healthcare providers are quite confident that Apple will follow through on this.

Apple (AAPL) thought about other applications of this data. It has also launched a dedicated website for their partner healthcare providers. The website will offer these providers more information on how they can best utilize Health Records, and how they can use it to improve patient care.

Health Records will be part of the iOS 11.3 update, and it will give healthcare providers an easy and convenient means to share medical data with their patients. While this is already being done in healthcare, Health Records by Apple offers a more consumer-friendly platform that further streamlines an existing healthcare industry practice. Medical records such as allergies, clinical vitals, immunizations, medical procedures, and lab results will also be stored in Health Records. The feature is offering encryption and password protection for safety purposes. In turn, Health Records users will gain easy and immediate access to data sources, as well as to patient portals created by partner healthcare providers.