Epic Systems introduced its Share Everywhere feature, which enables patients to grant doctors and caregivers access to their data.
Not to be confused with the EHR vendor’s Care Everywhere, which enables health information sharing between providers, Epic’s Share Everywhere gives patients more control over the data sharing process.
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Here’s how it works. A patient already using Epic’s MyChart patient portal can tap into the Share Everywhere feature to generate a one-time access code that the patient would verbally tell the doctor, according to an Epic spokesperson.
The clinician, in turn, would take that code to a Share Everywhere website and verify it against the patient’s date of birth.
“In addition to having a view of the patient's record, the doctor would be able to enter a progress note regarding the visit, which would be sent back to the patient's home provider,” the spokesperson said.
Because the patient determines exactly who gets that access, Epic said their privacy is protected.
John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which said this year that is merging with Epic customer Lahey Health, said Share Everywhere supports two types of interoperability that hospitals need.
“Interoperability needs to have two approaches: caregiver to caregiver, if that’s what the patient wants, caregiver to patient to caregiver, for those who want to be stewards of their own data,” Halamka said.
Share Everywhere will be available at no cost in the November update of Epic’s MyChart, the company said.
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