#Middlebury #Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs has partnered with Apple to let us access our health records right from our iPhone. This information will include not only the health care we get from the VA, but from other medical providers as well.
If you’ve ever looked at the Health app on your iPhone, you’ve seen that it’s comprehensive. With the VA partnership with Apple, you’ll be able to look up lab results and check prescriptions, shot records and more, right on your phone.
It will work with third-party apps to keep track of every healthy (or unhealthy) thing you do. It will remind you to take your pills or check your glucose. It will track your sleep cycles and wake you with an alarm. The phone app can even hook up with an Apple smartwatch and let you know if your heart rate is too fast.
So why does this make me nervous? Let me count the ways.
- You’ll need an iPhone to access the Health app. At this writing, the cheapest one is $450, for an iPhone 8. Editor’s note: The iPhone 8 is the cheapest model still in production. Earlier models are available for lower prices.
- The software will periodically connect your phone to the various medical servers and bring in any new records.
- To keep your medical data safe, you’ll need to use Face ID, a passcode or Touch ID, whether or not you want it. Are you certain that no one else knows your passcode?
- The app includes an unencrypted emergency Medical ID card that EMTs (and anyone else) can use to check your health info.
- We don’t know that third-party provider apps are safe.
Check your iPhone if you have one. The default setting is to track your walking distance, flights climbed and steps taken. You might have years of data on your phone without knowing it.
© 2019 King Features Synd. Inc.
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