Simple standards PHR format ‘changes everything’

WASHINGTON — In 2010, the Veterans Administration launched the Blue Button, a standards format that allows simple exchange of a patient’s personal health data. Initially designed for use by veterans, the idea has taken off like gangbusters in the private sector and has been supported by at least one major care provider overseas.

According to VA’s chief technology officer and Blue Button developer Peter Levin, Blue Button is expanding much beyond what most people expected.

“This changes everything,” Levin said. “Blue Button really is on the vanguard of changing the clinical encounter. Patients now have access to their record. It's all there; all organized.”

Levin called the federal Blue Button initiative, “a rare example of government doing only what government can do.” He said with Blue Button the government is making sure citizens have easy and safe access to their data and showing how others in the private sector can do the same for their patients, giving them access and control of their care.

So far, at least 60 private organizations have pledged to adopt Blue Button, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Current nationwide users include Kaiser Permanente, McKesson, Microsoft HealthVault, Aetna and United Health Group. As of this fall, more than 600,000 Americans have used Blue Button to download their health records.

At the mHealth Summit held in Washington, DC in December, Sangita Reddy, executive director of operations for Apollo Hospitals Group, one of Asia’s largest healthcare groups, said Apollo plans to adopt Blue Button.

Brian Kelly, MD, head of informatics at Aetna Health Plans said Aetna has for years made a PHR available to its 10 million members on Aetna navigator, with three to four million of them using PHRs today. Recently, Aetna added the Blue Button format as another option for its members to exchange their data.

Since September, a couple thousand Aetna members have downloaded their PHR data using Blue Button, Kelly said. Patients who use Blue Button will be able to easily exchange their data with providers who also use Blue Button, Kelly said.

Blue Button offers “a simple start with practical tangible steps, but it isn't the end all- be all of interoperability,” Kelly warned. “There are still security issues and the complexity of hundreds of different electronic health records, and getting them all to converge on common standards is going to take tens of years to do.”