Blue Button for All Americans Contest Winner Announced–So What?

Elsewhere on the VA website today and probably in the papers tomorrow we can read an announcement about the winner of VA’s Blue Button® for All Americans Contest.  The winner is McKesson Corporation and its RelayHealth subsidiary.

But other than the fact that McKesson is going to donate the $50,000 prize – all of it – to the Wounded Warrior Project , so what?

Here’s what.   A year ago VA was the first health plan in the country to launch a Blue Button-enabled Personal Health Record (PHR) so Veterans could keep track of their own health data on My HealtheVet and download it any time they want.   Yes, it started small – most of the data had to be self-entered – but during the last year the VA Blue Button has become more robust.  Veterans can now download their VA prescriptions, diagnosed allergies, upcoming appointments and VA lab results.  And there is more to come...