Apple Health Records rolls out in iOS 11.3 to praise from doctors in 39 health groups

The new Health Records feature was previously available to patients who joined the Apple Beta Software Program and used iOS 11.3. With Thursday's update, patients from health institutions who use the feature can view their medical records simply by updating their iOS software on their iPhone.

In what Apple calls the "Northeast and Mid-Atlantic United States" providers AtlantiCare, Geisinger Health System, Johns Hopkins Medicine, LifeBridge Health, NYU Langone Health, Partners HealthCare, Penn Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, Inc., Valley Medical Group P.C., plus the combined Yale New Haven Health and Yale Medicine all have compatibility with the feature.

In the midwest, the groups listed by Apple include Cerner Health Clinic, CoxHealth, Mosaic Life Care, Nebraska Methodist Health System, OhioHealth, Rush University Medical Center, Southwest General Health Center, Truman Medical Centers, and The University of Chicago Medicine.

In the south, Adventist Health System, BayCare Health System, Duke University Health System, MedStar Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Mission Health, Ochsner Health System, Ortho Virginia, TSAOG Orthopaedics, UNC Health Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and WVU Medicine have enabled the feature.

In the Western U.S., patients of Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, Eisenhower Health, Providence St. Joseph Health, Scripps Health, Stanford Medicine, UC San Diego Health, UC Irvine Health have the feature available.

"People hand you all sorts of things these days, and more data is almost never bad, but when they show up with paper, how do you summate that," asked Dr. Robert Harrington from the Department of Medicine at Stanford. "It is a labor intensive, very tedious task."

Harrington said that Apple's Health Records is "an important maneuver for patient empowerment and the way the world needs to be."

This information retrievable from the iPhone or iPad can help patients better understand their health history, have informed conversations with physicians and family members, and make future decisions. Health Records data is encrypted and protected with the user's iPhone passcode.