The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has announced mHealth upgrades.
This summer, the U.S Department of Veteran Affairs will release new capabilities via the recently announced Veterans Health Application Programming Interface (Veterans Health API). These capabilities will allow Veterans who receive care at VA with the ability to access their personal medial data using Apple’s Health Records feature on iPhone.
Veterans will be able to see an aggregated view of their health conditions via the iPhone health app.
This includes an aggregated view of their allergies, medical conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals. Additionally, since Health Records on iPhone brings together hospitals and clinics outside VA with the existing Apple Health app, this means that Veterans can view their available medical data from more than one provider, including Veteran Affairs, whenever they wish.
This new feature is possible because of the Veterans Health API. This tech allows Veterans to access their health records within their web browser or via innovative mobile apps.
The new Veterans Health API is VA’s further commitment to provide Veterans easy and secure access to their health data.
Back in 2010, VA launched VA Blue Button, a feature of the My Health eVet, which gave Veterans the ability to download a copy of their VA health records online. This latest mHealth upgrade makes it even easier for Vets to securely access their own health data any time they want.
After visiting a VA health care facility, the participating Veteran’s Apple device will receive an automatic update to their health record information within 24 hours after the visit, via the built-in iPhone Health app. Although the new capability will at first be available only through Apple phones, the VA intends to partner with others to bring similar capabilities to Veterans who use other mobile platforms.
“Our Health API represents the next stage in the evolution of VA’s patient data access capability,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie in a press release.
“By building upon the Veterans Health API, we’re raising the bar in collaborating with private sector 
organizations to create and deploy innovative digital products for Veterans. Veterans should be able to access their health data at any time, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come to accomplishing this.”
