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AARP launches its awesome Health Record app for members

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If you’ve ever heard me give “The HealthVault Pitch (TM),” you’ll have heard me talk about the two key premises underlying the service:

  1. In order to be useful, personal health tools need to be connected to clinical data, because people are simply not going to manually transcribe their information.
  2. Each person’s health situation is unique and requires specialized solutions --- the tools that work for a young family aren’t necessarily the right ones for an older diabetic. That’s why we built HealthVault as a platform on top of which dozens of specialized applications can be built.

I am totally excited about the new AARP Health Record because it delivers value against both of these premises. What Betsy, Jessica and the team there has done is just fantastic and I am confident will grow to be a central component of the service AARP members expect.

First --- because the Health Record is built on top of HealthVault, it automatically can connect to more clinical data than any other PHR in the world. Prescriptions from CVS and Walgreens? Check. Lab results from LabCorp or Quest? Check. Home measurements of glucose, blood pressure, weight, heart rate, and more? Check. Even paper charts are no problem --- Zweena or UNIVAL will (for a very reasonable fee) request copies from doctors and convert them into electronic information available in the Health Record.

Second --- the app has been built specifically to meet the needs of AARP members --- it’s not just a generic “PHR”. Features such as emergency cards, sharing with family or other loved ones, and chronic condition management are highlighted. The AARP team took great pains to make the site as easy to use as possible, even pushing back on my team for updates and tweaks they felt were critical. It’s available in English and Spanish, and has a built in “zoom” feature to make small text easier to read. It was great to work with such obviously dedicated folks.

If you’re an AARP member --- the Health Record is free and even if all you ever use is the emergency card functionality it’s worth logging in here. And if somebody you love is a member, make sure they check it out too!

Read the full AARP press release here.