Mobile applications can successfully create interoperability between electronic health records and third-party data, according to a research paper published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, FierceMobileHealthcare reports.
Details of Paper
For the paper, researchers at the Australia-based University of Technology Sydney worked with third parties — such as app developers, EHR vendors and makers of wearable technology — to develop the myFitnessCompanion app.
The app — which has 6,000 users worldwide — collects disparate data streams in a single location and integrates them into EHRs. The app connects to back-end servers, devices and systems, including:
- Fitbit;
- Google Fit;
- iHealth;
- Jawbone;
- Microsoft HealthVault; and
- Various EHR systems.
Researchers found that there typically is no “real integration of fitness-related data and health records stored in EHR systems.” Further, solutions are rare because of challenges related to storing data, reconciling wireless protocols and lack of standards for sharing information.
“To provide better health outcomes and better patient engagement, a complete picture is needed which combines informal health and fitness data collected by the user, together with official health records collected by health professionals,” the researchers wrote, adding, “By combining these two streams, the data can be analyzed using data analytics and health professional expertise to offer better personalized advice and care” (Mottl, FierceMobileHealthcare
