Medisafe integration with Apple's Health Records brings easy medication management to iOS

Medication management app Medisafe this week finalized integration with Apple's Health Records API, granting nearly five million users in 200 countries quick and easy iOS access to drug-to-drug interaction notifications, pill reminders and more.

Announced on Tuesday, Medisafe's Health Records support will allow iPhone owners to automatically import and manage prescriptions from participating health systems in the iOS Health app.

Apple threw a spotlight on Medisafe when it revealed the Health Records API in June. At the time, Apple touted the app and platform's potentially life-saving medication tracking capabilities.

"Medisafe will be able to warn patients of problematic drug-drug interactions because they have the comprehensive view of the patient's exact medication list from several hospitals and clinics," Apple said in a press release.

Medisafe expanded on the system in its own statement on Tuesday, saying Health Records' framework facilitates immediate cross-referencing of prescriptions uploaded by physicians. Notifications occur when a user is prescribed two or more medications, vitamins or supplements that negatively interact with each other, the company says.

According to Medisafe, the app has alerted users to more than 93,171 DDIs, about half of which were severe or life-threatening. That figure will likely rise with support for Apple's health platform.

"As the only Health Records app featured in Apple's launch to developers last June, Medisafe has used the Health Records API to bring consumers a private, easy-to-use solution that both helps them stay on track with their meds and safeguards them against harmful drug interactions," said Medisafe co-founder and CEO Omri Shor.

Health Records debuted alongside iOS 11.3 with initial support from 39 health groups. That number grew to stood at 75 backers in August.

The feature, built into the iOS Health app, makes user health history information portable. Health Records aggregates and stores encrypted patient data, meaning users can review medical records with doctors and caregivers directly from their iPhone or iPad.

1 Comment

GeorgeBMac 11421 comments · 8 Years

About 6 years ago

AppleInsider said:

....
Medisafe's Health Records support will allow iPhone owners to automatically import and manage prescriptions from participating health systems in the iOS Health app.
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As a now retired HomeHealth nurse, I shudder to read this!
A very large part of my job (between 1/3 and 1/2 depending on patient mix) was resolving screwed up presriptions.

One of the most common examples was a patient coming out of a hospital with prescriptions tuned to their hospital situation rather than what they needed in real life.   While there were serious, life threatening situations, one of the more humorous (for me, not the patient) was:

I guy with BPH (enlarged prostate) had been taking FloMax to help minimize the blockage to his urinary system. But, when he went into the hospital for heart failure they gave him a catheter (mostly to monitor his output) and put him on a diuretic to make make him void the excess fluid in his system.    So, when he left the hospital rewrote all of his prescriptions leaving him with a strong diuretic that made him have to urinate but without the FloMax to make it possible!   The poor guy was in agony!

Another example is another person with heart failure where one doctor wrote a prescription for a high dose of diuretic and another for a low dose.   Her legs were blowing up like balloons with the low dose and collapsing under the high dose.

While I could not change any of those prescriptions on my own, I was able to get right through to the physicians involved (bypassing the front office obstacles) and get the prescriptions fixed.

The moral of the story:   Apple is putting WAY too much confidence in Electronic Health Records that are too often incorrect, incomplete or conflicting.   It's the same old saw from back in the 70's where people believed if it came from a computer it had to be correct.

Or, another old saw that does apply:   GIGO -- Garbage In -- Garbage Out