Anyone who has unexpectedly had to visit a doctor or hospital overseas knows that finding medical treatment overseas can pose a number of challenges. Thanks to a new iPhone app, accessing medical records will no longer be one of these challenges.
EasyMed has released an app, International Medical Passport, which allows users to access their medical records via smartphone from any location around the world. Not only will travelers be able to access their health records instantly, but they will also be able to use the app to find preapproved medical professionals and facilities. Before their trip, they will be able to obtain information about vaccines (and even political situations that they might want to be concerned about). Since it is easy to forget medications while travelling, the app even provides medication reminders.
The app, which is available from over 300 mobile providers in over 80 countrie,s is touted by the company as not only being “cloud-based, secure, and compliant,” but it also “meets HIPAA requirements,” is “IBM-certified,” and “supports HL-7.” Tejinder Sahota, EasyMed’s CEO, sees this app as a way to “help make healthcare costs more manageable” and give users “far greater ownership of and control over their own health.”
These benefits are clearly targeted at those who travel extensively, but that does not mean that those who are excluded from this group should not research the mHealth applications that will be useful to their daily lives. As mHealth evolves, there are more and more applications that are targeted to specific lifestyles, so there is something for everyone.
Even for people who are not jetsetters or who do not spend countless hours on an airplane for their job, the emergence of mHealth offers many of the same promising benefits. As it becomes widely available, mHealth is allowing individuals’ greater ownership of their health, more control over their conditions, accelerated healing, and increased emotional well-being, among other benefits.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
