Kaiser goes mobile with 9 million strong

Nine million Kaiser Permanente patients can now access their own medical information anywhere in the world on mobile devices through a mobile-optimized website, Kaiser executives announced today.

[See also: Payers embrace mobile health apps]

Kaiser Permanente has released a new app for Android devices, and users of other mobile devices, including the iPhone. The app provides full access to the patient information that resides on the Kaiser Permanente health record system with the mobile-optimized version of kp.org. An additional app for iPhone will be released in the coming months, but iPhone users can easily download a shortcut icon onto their home screens that will take them directly to the mobile-friendly kp.org with a touch of the finger, Kaiser officials said.

In 2011 alone, more than 68 million lab test results were made available online to Kaiser Permanente patients. The mobile-optimized site and the new app make that information, and much more, securely available at members' fingertips, according to Kaiser.

[See also: Kaiser Permanente opens Center for Total Health in Washington]

Kaiser Permanente patients will have 24/7 access to lab results, diagnostic information, direct and secure email access to their doctors, and will also be able to order prescription refills. Kaiser Permanente patients have been able to email their doctors for five years, with more than 12 million e-visits in 2011 alone. Kaiser Permanente expects that number to increase significantly with the new app and mobile-optimized site.

The Android app is available now in the Android Market at no charge. Users of other mobile devices can access the same set of care-support tools at no charge through the new secure, mobile-optimized member website, which is available through smart-phone Internet browsers.

With the new offering, Kaiser Permanente patients have 24/7 access from their mobile devices to view their secure personal health record, email their doctors, schedule appointments, refill prescriptions and locate Kaiser Permanente medical facilities. Members who have the ability to act on behalf of a family member on kp.org now can accomplish the same tasks. Those caring for an elderly parent or someone with a chronic condition can now more easily check lab results, refill prescriptions and communicate with the doctor's office on behalf of the patient.

"This is the future of healthcare,” said George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. “Healthcare needs to be connected to be all that it can be. This new level of connectivity is happening real time, and it is happening on a larger scale than anything like it in the world. The fact that a Kaiser Permanente patient in an emergency room in Paris or Tokyo can simply pull out their mobile device and have immediate and current access to their own medical information is an evolutionary and revolutionary breakthrough for medical connectivity."