U.K. rolling out smartphone access to electronic medical records

Newswire: Sept. 11, 2017.

Dateline: London.

The United Kingdom will launch a smartphone application for its National Health Service, allowing users to access their electronic records and book appointments.

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health in the U.K., announced the application’s availability and features this week. “People should be able to access their own medical records 24/7, show their full medical history to anyone they choose, and book basic services – like GP appointments or repeat prescriptions — online,” he said.

He described the next 10 years as “the decade of patient power,” and said that by the end of 2018, he wants all patients to be able to carry out seven everyday healthcare-related tasks by using a smartphone app.

Eleven basic requests of patients may be satisfied by the app, including booking appointments, viewing records, and refilling prescriptions. “If the NHS is going to be the safest, highest quality healthcare system in the world, we need to do technology better,” Hunt said.

Read the full story here:

Front page image via wikipedia.