Think Different about Patient Engagement: Aetna, Apple, and a Vision of Digital Health ’s Future, Part 2

By LYGEIA RICCARDI This is the second post in a series on digital health inspired by Aetna and Apple, whose developing partnership is poised to impact millions of Americans. Part 1 is Mystery Mission in LA. Getting to Patient Engagement “Patient engagement” is a popular phrase in healthcare these days, but how do you actually get people to take a greater role vis a vis their own health and healthcare? As the first Director of Consumer eHealth at ONC in the US federal government, I spent several years making the case for strengthening patient engagement with technology, and trying to figure out how to make it happen at scale. With Aetna and Apple working together, I think we’re a step closer. Using the $36 billion+ federal “meaningful use” program–which catalyzed doctors’ migration from paper files to EHRs—as a hook, we required hospitals and doctors to give patients the capability to access (and use or share) their own health records online. The proportion of healthcare providers who give patients electronic access to their medical records has skyrocketed along with EHR adoption. As of 2015 (the most recent data available from ONC), nearly 70% of US non-federal acute care hospitals enabled patients to view, download, and transmit their health records electronically—up from just 10% in 2013. That’s a huge step in the right direction, but we’re still far from achieving the vision I share with an impassioned community of changemakers: a world in whic...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs