Apple Announces Health Records Feature Will Soon be Available to Veterans

Apple has announced a partnership with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that will make the Health Records feature on iPhone available to veterans.

For the first time, American veterans receiving care through the Veterans Health Administration will be able to securely view their aggregated health records directly in the Health app on their iPhone.

“We have great admiration for veterans, and we’re proud to bring a solution like Health Records on iPhone to the veteran community,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “It’s truly an honor to contribute to the improved healthcare of America’s heroes.”


How It Works:
With Health Records on iPhone, veterans across the US will be able to see medical information from participating institutions — including the VA — organized into one view all in the Health app. Health records data includes allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals, and is displayed along with other information in the Health app like Apple Watch data. This means VA patients will get a single, integrated snapshot of their health profile whenever they want quickly and privately. All Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user’s iPhone passcode, Touch ID or Face ID.

“When patients have better access to their health information, they have more productive conversations with their physicians,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “By bringing Health Records on iPhone to VA patients, we hope veterans will experience improved healthcare that will enhance their lives.”

“Our goal is to empower people to better understand and improve their health, enabling them to view their medical information from multiple providers in one place easily and securely,” said Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president of Technology. “We’re excited to bring this feature to veterans across the US.”

Health Records on iPhone will be the first record-sharing platform of its kind available to the VA, which is the largest medical system in the United States providing service to more than 9 million veterans across 1,243 facilities.