New App Gives Physicians and Patients Access to EMR on Smartphones

During a doctor’s office visit a few weeks ago, I was asked when I had my last tetanus shot and other adult immunizations.  Remember, this is for a man who is currently trying to decide when to take Social Security!  I honestly had to guess for some and had to answer “I think so,” for others.  I had moved several times in the past 15 years and changed not just cities but physicians and really never asked for a copy of my medical records.

I know I can request them by providing the appropriate paperwork and in some cases a fee, and for my current physicians I can log into the patient portal, but even that is somewhat challenging due to the number of physicians I have seen.  I’ll admit to having a family physician, but rather than give away too much of my health journey… Lets just say the list gets more personal with each additional specialist!

And what about my children and my collective 12 grandchildren?  Their parents are constantly being asked for proof of their completed immunizations and for medical clearance for school, sports, camp, and minor lacerations. All of this lack of information-at-your-fingertips leads to untold numbers of requests for records, extra physician visits and occasionally, unneeded tetanus shots.

Why can’t there be a specific, HIPAA compliant place on my own device where I (and others) can store all of these records?  And while we’re at it, how about a way to share records among the collection of facilities and physicians I have accumulated in my more than six decades of life?  And what if we even added a way to receive and send messages directly to each physician (or their offices)?

Just think about how this might be able to help you as a patient. Or help a provider to coordinate care for those who need it, as well as enable them to meet CMS guidelines.

Well, that may be asking the impossible given that there are literally hundreds of different variations of EMRs out there that would need to talk to each other in order for this to be available. However, a small Atlanta company called Docsnap, started by Anthony Mari, has created a platform that allows all of this to be done, and more, right now! 

Docsnap has created what can best be termed as the only compliant, person-centric electronic health records platform where an individual person or family can safely store all family members’ health and medical records in one central location. The platform gives patients access whenever and wherever they are needed or wanted.  While, at the same time, it makes it easy for health and medical providers to share documents, communications, reminders, and appointments in a user-friendly format that can be read, printed, or sent securely by email.

Anyone can use this by downloading the Docsnap app on your phone, creating an account, and then linking to providers.

A physician starts by signing and activating a Docsnap contract and onboarding their patients in a secure manner. Then they are ready to start to engage more effectively. Also, since any new encounter is pushed to patients, physicians are immediately in compliance with Meaningful Use and can take advantage of the incentive opportunities available to them.  Docsnap also reduces the number of record requests that need to be copied, faxed, or mailed.  Not too shabby!

Docsnap is another in a long list of small start-up companies who are trying to make medical care better, provide better outcomes, and decrease expenses… all with fingertip accessibility.