Apple is opening the doors to its mobile Health Records feature even wider by allowing US health care organizations with compatible EHRs to self-register for the personal health record system.

The news was tweeted on Wednesday by Dr. Ricky Bloomfield, Apple’s clinical and health informatics lead, and reflected with an update to Apple’s Health Records registration page.

Registering a system or clinic allows patients to download their health records to the phone upon providing the credentials to their existing patient portal. Additionally, the provider’s brand or locations will be surfaced within the personal health record feature when searched by a user.

WHY IT MATTERS

The rollout of Apple Health Records has so far been exclusive to a growing number of partner healthcare providers and certain organizations such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. While this gradual approach already provided millions of patients the option of connecting their provider’s records to their own, the option of provider self-registry could further open the floodgates — an opportunity that Apple sees as a win-win for patient engagement and data access.

“Health Records now allows you to have all of your records, if you go to different systems in particular, in one place,” Dr. Sumbul Desai, VP of health at Apple, told MobiHealthNews back in February. “And I will tell you, as a physician I’ll see patients in the ER … and a lot of times the questions we ask are ‘What kind of medications are you on?’ … So now to have an area where I can look at all of that is very helpful. We’re very early in that journey … but there’s a lot of potential there and we’re really excited about what we can do. And we’re really excited that the medical community is excited about it.”

WHAT’S THE TREND

Apple has been fairly forthcoming about its big-picture push to empower consumers with convenient access to health information and products. Alongside this week’s Health Records update, the company has recently begun carrying One Drop’s Health Records-integrated glucose monitoring system in stores; announced period tracking, activity trends and hearing protection as core features of its upcoming WatchOS 6; acquired the maker of a passive health monitoring system; and is pushing to launch its smartwatch ECG functionality across Europe, Canada and other regions.