How Will Healthcare benefit from the New iPhone 5s?

[Brandi Boren]

The buzz that everybody keeps talking about with the new iPhone 5s is the finger print sensor especially for healthcare.  This feature would secure patient information from being seen by anyone other than the user of the iPhone.  Sounds great, but it didn’t quite work out that way because Apple’s touch ID technology got hacked.  The iPhone 5s has a M7 motion coprocessor.  It gets data from the devices various sensors such as the compass and GPS.  It tracks a user’s movements and activities. 

What this means is that with the new IOS 7 being released it allows for the development of new healthcare related apps.  These apps won’t have to rely on the phones sensors.  One of those apps is called AirDrop.  This app allows users to share photos and files with other devices on the same Wi-Fi.  Physicians will be able to share those photos and files with patients and other physicians.  If the patient has an IOS device the physician can AirDrop right to the patient.  So instead of giving the patient a poor copy of their results on paper they can AirDrop a colored PDF or video onto their iPhone.  Physicians can also sent other physicians the same information right to their device.  Can you imagine viewing your medical records and images right from your iPhone?  I guess that means no more going to medical records and requesting a copy of your records unless you don’t have a iPhone.      

My question is with the sharing of patient information between devices isn’t that a security risk?  To me that would be too easy to access patients information.  According to drchrono officials who designed this app it is secure.  Users can limit who they share with, it’s over a local Wi-Fi, and it’s encrypted end to end.  They say it is perfectly secure sharing from one device to another.  From what I have read physicians are excited about being able to share medical information in real time with the patient at the point of care.

I’ll leave you with this to think about:  With the finger print sensor what happens if you cut your finger?  Does that mean you can’t access your iPhone and your patient’s information?  Not only would it be secure from unauthorized users it would be secure from the user as well.

Brandi Boren has worked for Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Medical Records for seven years and has four years experience with McKesson including Horizon Patient Folder, Paragon Medical Records, and Webstation for Physicians.