Mobile Milestones: Blue-Button Health Data For Everyone

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is trying to do for the public what the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) did for veterans by building on the VA's popular "Blue Button" application, allowing patients to get their medical records electronically on their mobile devices. The "Blue Button" mashup challenge will be designed to bring "health information to the masses," said Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national health information technology coordinator. It will allow anyone whose doctor keeps computerized records to get those records on mobile devices like phones, tablets and laptops...

Right now, the application only works for the VA. In addition, some insurance companies, notably United Health Care and Aetna, as well as Medicare, allow only medical insurance records to be accessed remotely.

But this new initiative by HHS, originally announced June 5, is aimed at allowing everyone, including those on Medicare and Medicaid, to access their health data, as long as their physician uses online records. It would also allow them eventually to coordinate their medical and insurance records and also connect that data with information about pharmacies, doctors, and other medical providers. It would also call on doctors to have medical records online and remotely accessible, as many do already through web portals....