A blog about the latest updates, stories and ideas from the OneRecord team.

The latest updates, stories and ideas from the OneRecord team.

The OneRecord Blog

What is Telehealth and is it the future?  We think so! Patients will be more inclined in the future to receive their check-ups from the comfort of their homes for many reasons.  Read on!

Is Telehealth the Future of Healthcare?

In a previous article, we discussed some of the aspects of the healthcare industry which are likely to grow in the coming years. From monitoring patient vitals with artificial intelligence, to the gradual emphasis of patient-centric care, it is obvious that technology will play an enormous role in the advancement of health management. Chief among the newest innovations to be jump-started by the COVID-19 pandemic is telehealth and telemedicine, which introduces the virtual approach to providers across the globe. Keep reading to learn how patients will be more inclined in the future to receive their check-ups from the comfort of their homes!

An emerging technology which cemented itself in the healthcare realm for good after the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020, telehealth is the practice of organizing virtual visits between doctors and patients. The similar term telemedicine usually refers to just remote clinical services, while telehealth is a broader word for receiving any healthcare virtually.

The telehealth setup was particularly useful during the pandemic, when those infected by COVID-19 were advised not to leave their homes. Hopping on a video call much like a Zoom meeting became not only beneficial to keep the spread of the virus at bay, but necessary as more people came down with the disease’s symptoms.

By using special telehealth software, providers are able to speak with, diagnose, treat, and prescribe medications digitally to the patient. While this was useful for lockdown situations, healthcare professionals quickly realized the myriad of other benefits telemedicine provided, including cutting on commute costs, accurately tracking patients at home, saving time, and perhaps most importantly creating an accessible and convenient means for receiving healthcare. As it turns out, patients are more likely to give their health the attention it deserves when there are fewer roadblocks standing in the way of a trip to the doctor’s office.

Telehealth eliminates the need for sick or chronically ill patients to worry about their appointments, drive out to a clinic, and wait to see a doctor. Instead, emphasis is placed on the patient-doctor relationship and clear communication is promoted. Where testing and physical examination are needed, many new digital health applications and personal medical devices are already stepping in to fill in the gaps. In time, we can expect the majority of healthcare visits to occur virtually, further increasing the accessibility of proper health management!

The rise of telehealth and telemedicine aligns well with the direction of healthcare in the twenty-first century. As technology becomes more engrossed in managing patient health, the need for user control also becomes an important issue. Patients should have the right to understand their healthcare options and see their entire health history with minimal interference—if you can order takeout directly to your doorstep within minutes, you should also be able to schedule health visits with just a few button presses!

The days of waiting rooms—where patients are tempted to feel like nothing more than a number—are fading. Healthcare needs to become more personalized around the patient’s experience, and telehealth is the next step to achieve that.

Stay On Top of Your Medical History With OneRecord

Whether you anticipate using telehealth every day or still prefer scheduling those in-person visits with your doctor, it is important to take advantage of managing your own health from every angle. With the OneRecord app, you can easily connect to all of your providers and download your medical information into a single, easy-to-access place. OneRecord makes it easy to keep track of your well-being while you make informed decisions on your healthcare journey. For all your health information in one place, OneRecord has you covered.

Why Telehealth is the Future of Healthcare

There are many reasons Telehealth is here to stay - reason that pertain to you as a patient. Learn how you can prepare here!

OneRecord has been awarded a Fast Company Innovation by Design Award and is listed amongst an impressive list of projects and companies within all aspects of healthcare - from at-home clinical research technology to wearable trackers, to hospital healing gardens, to birth control information toolkits, and so much in-between.

OneRecord Named As Honoree Of Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards

Chief Barketing Officer

Today OneRecord was announced as an honoree of Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards in the Health category.  The Health category comprises of projects and companies with the most important and impactful healthcare designs of 2021.  

OneRecord is included amongst an impressive list of projects and companies within all aspects of healthcare - from at-home clinical research technology, to wearable trackers, to hospital healing gardens, to birth control information toolkits, and so much in-between.  

At OneRecord, we have a user-centered design approach that puts the users' needs as the primary focus. Simplifying record retrieval from any medical source is hugely complex, but to any user it should not feel that way - and we achieve that with a constantly evolving UI, directly through data insights and user feedback.

Check out the full list of Fast Company’s 2021 Innovation by Design Awards Honorees in the Health category here.

OneRecord is included amongst an impressive list of projects and companies within all aspects of healthcare - from at-home clinical research technology, to wearable trackers, to hospital healing gardens, to birth control information toolkits, and so much in-between.

Learn What FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and SMART (Substitutable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies) Are and How They Change the Standard of Healthcare in the United States of America

What Is FHIR and SMART?

Just ask us here at OneRecord—there’s a lot that goes into designing a digital medical records app! Aside from the actual building and coding that goes on behind the scenes, we need to consider many other aspects such as the user interface, graphics, and accessibility. Not the least of the challenges many healthcare app designers face involves the interoperability of their creation with the many electronic health record (EHR) systems on the market. Read on to learn how recent innovations are standardizing these apps to bring medical record access to more people than ever before!

If either of these acronyms are unfamiliar to you, then don’t worry! FHIR, or “Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources,” was created as a coding standard when it comes to developers working on new healthcare applications. Doubling as an application programming interface (API), FHIR dictates how an EHR should store health data and the format for saving that information. With many EHR vendors utilizing this same method, third-party health applications (like Apple Health or OneRecord) are able to interact with that medical data without worrying about the differences in coding structure between different electronic health records.

SMART, on the other hand, stands for “Substitutable Medical Applications and Reusable Technologies.” While FHIR strives to make health data look the same across most EHRs so health applications can gain access, SMART is responsible for launching those programs within the EHRs and maintaining the security of the information being shared. In essence, SMART is what allows third-party health apps to exchange data from FHIR interfaces in the first place. These two sets of standards often work together, so companies will often describe their applications as “SMART on FHIR,” meaning their product was designed around these rulesets.

How Do These Standards Influence Healthcare’s Future?

The creation of FHIR and SMART are prime examples of the interoperability push spurred by the HITECH Act, which focuses on making healthcare technology able to communicate more effectively and simply with providers and patients alike. As technology becomes more involved in the healthcare system, upholding a standard for developers to follow means a greater number of compatible EHRs for health apps to talk to…and less headaches along the way!

For instance, the well-known Apple Health App currently has plans to introduce a new feature which allows patients to select specific health data recorded by their device and opt to share it with their doctor. A provider can then check on that data whenever necessary to keep up to date on that patient’s daily health and improve the monitoring picture. But this integration was made much more feasible because the Apple Health App was originally designed around FHIR and SMART. That means new features like this are easily compatible with most EHRs already out there—no need to tailor the code to specific vendors!

With more apps being developed under these mutual conditions, healthcare will gradually become more accessible to all users and providers across the digital landscape. In the future, the hurdles caused by compatibility issues between applications and EHRs might disappear altogether!

Keeping the user experience at the forefront of our mission, our team designed the OneRecord app around FHIR and SMART from the get-go, which allows it to work alongside numerous EHRs already in use by your providers and clinics. Accessing your own health information should never be a hassle, which is why the OneRecord app can also be used across multiple smart device brands and platforms, unlike the Apple Health App. Take advantage of healthcare innovation and get all your medical records in one place today!

What Will the Standard for Medical Record Apps Look Like in the Future?

Ever wondered what innovations are going on within digital medical records in 2021?  Well we've got you covered, read on!

There are so many innovations in healthcare and health care legislation including HITECH Act, Cures Act, and even the recent pandemic.  They have forced certain technological trends to catch on much faster than usual to meet demands for more innovation. Here are a few directions healthcare will take which are sure to pick up speed over the next several years.

This is the Future of Healthcare

Healthcare in 2021 is nothing like healthcare ten years ago. The biggest differences are found in the gradual integration of technology into the management of our health, particularly from the patient-end of the experience. Jumpstarts to the healthcare system—such as the HITECH Act, Cures Act, and even the recent pandemic—have forced certain technological trends to catch on much faster than usual to meet demands for innovation. Here are a few directions healthcare will take which are sure to pick up speed over the next several years. Fasten your seatbelts!

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic all but secured telehealth’s place in healthcare for good. Once an emerging technology, the use of virtual health visits became a necessity while struggling practices and providers navigated the worldwide lockdowns and quarantines. Telehealth not only allowed physicians to speak with, diagnose, and treat their patients in safety, but also proved convenient for patients who preferred to be seen without leaving their homes. In fact, over one third of health-related visits throughout last year were conducted via telehealth.

More and more practices are investing in telehealth ever since the pandemic flared up in order to cope with the virtual option’s surge in popularity. After all, receiving care from home not only increases the accessibility of check-ups, follow-ups, and evaluations—it also improves the speed and convenience of such appointments, leading to savings for both the patient and the provider. COVID-19 sparked a revolution for telehealth, and it isn’t dying down any time soon!

Chronic diseases include lifestyle illnesses like diabetes, cancer, and a tendency for strokes, but others like Crohn’s disease, Lyme disease, and Lupus are relatively recent discoveries, with their first diagnosed cases appearing within the last 100 years or so (Lyme disease was first diagnosed in 1970!). As a result, some chronic illnesses are not well understood and have been handled by professionals with mild skepticism and caution. But seeing as six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic disease, physicians are continually researching better methods of managing the symptoms of these setbacks.

One up-and-coming solution to the problem includes artificial intelligence. Many technologies and apps are recognizing the need for keeping a consistent watch on patients with chronic diseases. Whereas a doctor can’t be constantly with their patients to monitor for symptoms, specialized A.I. technologies designed to track pain, diagnose problems, and store findings are already passing clinical trials throughout the world. In the coming years, it is expected that artificial intelligence will make up the bulk of chronic disease management technology.

The future of healthcare is deeply centered around giving patients greater control over their own health. Without emphasizing patient health as the primary goal of healthcare, the industry simply cannot move forward. Although this sounds like a no-brainer, don’t forget that the traditional healthcare approach involves patients filling out stacks of papers and twiddling their thumbs in waiting rooms. Providers are often distracted by the process of health management rather than focusing on the patient experience.

But as technology becomes more incorporated with hospitals and providers, the shift from process to patient is inevitable. Patient engagement steps to the forefront of importance. The process becomes automated and driven by the end-user, leaving more room for patient interaction and personalized check-ins with doctors. In the future, patients will have more options than ever before as they enjoy the freedom of shopping for providers, utilizing remote check-ins, changing appointment times with ease, and viewing their insurance coverage at a glance. These changes lean toward a patient-centric healthcare system, which is in everyone’s benefit!

It is clear that technology will play a vital role in the transformation of healthcare over the next decade. With computers and applications taking over the humdrum tasks health professionals are faced with every day, providers are able to deliver better experiences for their informed patients.

But how will patients stay informed? By tracking their own health records. Transparency between doctors and patients is key for users to take full advantage of these progressive health management systems. The OneRecord app was built to give patients full control over their medical information, empowering them to make better healthcare decisions from one convenient, mobile platform. Learn more about how OneRecord can keep all your health history updated without the worry of doing it yourself!

What Does the Future of Healthcare Look Like? 

Fasten your seatbelts 'cause healthcare is sure to pick up speed over the next several years!

OneRecord further broadens the reach of its brand new Insurance Module listing Aetna, a CVS Health Company, to their Connected Payers list. Now any consumer with an Aetna plan - that is mandated under the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F) - can get their clinical, financial, and formulary data in their OneRecord.

OneRecord Launches Aetna, a CVS Health Company, as the Next Supported Payer on the OneRecord Insurance Module

NEW YORK,Aug. 26, 2021/PRNewswire/ -- OneRecord further broadens the reach of its brand new Insurance Module listing Aetna to their Connected Payers list. Now any consumer with an Aetna plan - that is mandated under the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F) - can get their clinical, financial, and formulary data in their OneRecord.

OneRecord, a digital health company, that enables consumers to access, aggregate, and share their healthcare data has developed a consumer health plan data component to their platform.  This advancement makes finding health plan records as accessible as finding health care records. Aetna stands alongside a list of over 40 supported Payers within OneRecord including: Centene Corporation, Humana and Delaware Medicaid. OneRecord anticipates supporting all plans mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act.

Founded in 1853, Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 46.7 million people.  The CVS Health business believes in helping people live healthier lives through resources that make the communities and world we live in better places.  Now, as the next supported Payer to be launched on the OneRecord Insurance Module, which debuted on July 1st of this year, Aetna provides its members with a digital channel to access personal medical information. 

OneRecord CEO and Co-Founder Jennifer Blumenthal comments, "Under the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Rule, Aetna members will be able to obtain and use all electronically available information that is relevant to their healthcare through OneRecord. Our next big feature we are working on is utilizing Aetna's Provider Directory API so members can search for providers in Aetna's Medicare and Medicaid networks. In the simplest terms, this means you as a consumer will be able to find the right specialist, book an appointment, and automatically receive a copy of the consultation note, lab results, and all relevant information. 

OneRecord is accessible on desktop, tablets, and mobile phones. Find OneRecord on the VA.gov App Store, the Apple App Store (supporting iPhones running iOS 12.4+), and Google Play (for devices running Android 9+) or on the web at www.onerecord.com with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari.

Now Members from Aetna Health Plans Can Access Clinical, Financial, and Formulary Data with OneRecord

Here are the differences between the two leading health apps: Apple Health and OneRecord.  Read on to find out everything you need to know about how they compare and what sets them apart.  This comparison is important to patients looking to advance their health journey in the best ways possible.

How is OneRecord Different Than Apple Health?

Whether you’re a frequent user of the OneRecord app or have never even considered your options for digitally tracking your health data, it pays to understand the growing industry. As technology becomes more and more of an integral part of America’s healthcare system, many different providers and practices are facing a sink-or-swim crisis: either they adopt reliable electronic health record solutions or face the legal (and business) repercussions.

The merging of healthcare and technology for patients and end-users is a big deal, which is why giant companies like Apple have innovated with their own software. Acting as the official Apple application for tracking health records and day-to-day health routines, the Apple Health App comes integrated within many of Apple’s smart devices, leading to a wide acceptance and usage across their customer base.

But how does Apple Health compare to OneRecord? What sets them apart? Keep reading to find out!

Apart from any practical differences, the Apple Health App is run by Apple, a corporate giant whose solutions and products span many different niches. Healthcare, in fact, is a relatively new market the company is dipping its toe in. Such a broad umbrella of customers to appeal to—coupled with a monumental reputation—has led to consumer distrust toward the Apple Health App. After all, Apple isn’t traditionally a healthcare company and does not focus all of its resources on securing health information.  A study in 2020 indicated that the vast majority of patients do not trust tech companies like Apple to keep their records safe.

The OneRecord app was created by seasoned healthcare professionals and advocates specifically to bring power to the user. This includes benefiting patients, providers, and hospitals alike. Alongside the vision of OneRecord Founder and CEO, Jennifer Blumenthal—who holds a position as both the Chair of Consumer Facing Technology in the CareQuality Committee and the Chair of Privacy and Security in the Operating Committee— OneRecord takes health information seriously and has gone to many lengths to make sure privacy and accessibility mesh seamlessly.

The Apple Health App can be convenient for Apple smart device owners because it often comes pre-installed and fully integrated with Apple products, meaning users don’t even need to bother downloading and installing it. Being ready for immediate use has the potential to introduce many newcomers to the idea of health tracking apps.

But the app’s first party design comes at a cost: the Apple Health App is only available on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple’s other products. While it’s true that Apple has many users in the United States, other competitors such as Google and Amazon have stolen a bit of the limelight, leaving a swath of people locked out of Apple Health.

Striving to empower the patient as much as possible, the OneRecord app is readily available across multiple devices and operating systems, including Google Play, web browsers, and even through Apple’s own App Store. This allows people of all backgrounds to give it a go regardless of their technology preferences! Control of your health records should be a right for everyone, after all.

Accessibility is the driving force behind healthcare legislation such as the Cures Act and HITECH Act. As such, it’s crucial that health record apps are on point when it comes to the user experience. Confusing layouts and convoluted setup processes defeat the purpose.

While the Apple Health App is certainly accessible for its users, it loses out on health record tracking because the functionality is often lost within the scope of the entire app. The application was initially intended as a means for tracking health habits such as steps, diet, and sleep…and to that end, it performs well! Only later did its ability to track health records get added in. In fact, the Health Record Setup’s location at the very bottom of the app’s browsing tab is easy to miss.

The OneRecord app puts user experience first with an intuitive layout that is easy to navigate. The step-by-step process for locating your health providers is simple, and the app even updates your records with every healthcare visit you make instead of requiring you to manually put new information in as you go.

When designing OneRecord, our mission was very clear: create a powerful and accessible healthcare management experience and put it in the hands of as many people as possible. The marriage of technology and healthcare is only complete when patients and users have full control over their health records. Learn more about how OneRecord can consolidate all of your records into one place—simply.

Wondering about the ? Here's what you need to know.

Wondering about the differences between the two leading health apps? Here's what you need to know.

OneRecord continues to join pioneering initiatives such as this universal Endpoint Directory by CAQH. As one of the three 3rd third-party applications validated, OneRecord is able to connect members to payer data and visa-versa. The CAQH Endpoint Directory will enable payers and application developers to quickly and efficiently find and validate the connections needed to exchange information. The solution will help payers meet Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) interoperability regulations that are actively becoming effective.

OneRecord Is Listed as One of the first Validated Applications in the CAQH National Directory of FHIR Endpoints

The Newly Listed Third-Party Application, OneRecord, will demonstrate their Functionality with CAQH at HIMSS 2021

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OneRecord - available free on iOS, Android, and the web - becomes one of the earliest listed applications in the CAQH National Directory of FHIR Endpoints. The CAQH Endpoint Directory will enable payers and application developers to quickly and efficiently find and validate the connections needed to exchange information.  

OneRecord continues to be first-in-line to join pioneering initiatives such as this universal Endpoint Directory. As one of the three 3rd third-party applications validated, OneRecord is now able to connect members to payer data and visa-versa. The solution will help payers meet Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) interoperability regulations that are actively becoming effective.

OneRecord launched its Payer Module in June of 2021 and is also live with many of the largest payers in the United States, including Aetna, Centene Corporation, Humana, and many more.  Members from health plans connected to OneRecord can access their clinical, financial, and formulary data in one place - their OneRecord. 

CAQH has invited OneRecord to demonstrate the Endpoint Directory functionality at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase this summer. As a patient-facing third-party app, OneRecord will exhibit how their application can find a payer's endpoint using the CAQH directory, make a connection request, and ultimately retrieve the requesting patient's info via the patient access API.

"Finding and being authorized to access FHIR endpoints has been the biggest pain point over the past year for OneRecord with provider organizations. With Payers, we are seeing a true willingness to make their endpoints publicly available for third-party applications to discover and use. CAQH's directory is a huge step and will help many third-party applications and payers prepare for Payer to Payer Data Exchange," comments OneRecord Cofounder and CEO, Jennifer Blumenthal.  "We applaud CAQH, along with Edifecs and EHNAC, for leading the charge in open FHIR directory access. And we look forward to everyone seeing OneRecord connect with payer FHIR endpoints in a production environment at HIMSS next week!"  