The San Diego-based software company Humetrix has released a cross-platform version of its iBlueButton app that lets patients and physicians exchange medical information at the point of care with iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones.

Humetrix, which won the federal government’s Blue Button mashup innovation challenge, calls the multi-platform personal health record app the first of its kind, with secure QR-code data transfer.

[See also: ONC aims to put Blue Button on automatic.]

"iBlueButton puts patients’ health in their own hands and, in doing so, not only solves the problem of having your health records when and where they’re needed, but dramatically improves patient-physician communication at the point of care," Bettina Experton, MD, Humetrix CEO and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego, said in a media release.

Humetrix is pitching its app as a solution to some of the limitations of health information exchanges, with app users able to access and share their health records at any provider. Medicare members using the company’s BlueButton app can also have their text files automatically decoded into plain English.

[See also: Blue Button sees 1 million patients sign on.]

With the QR (quick response) code, patients using the cross-platform BlueButton app can share their records with doctors using the provider version of the app, who can then attach the record to an electronic health record system.

"By taking advantage of one of the most powerful tools that patients and their families own – their smartphones – iBlueButton enables a quick and secure exchange of critical health information to help improve the safety and effectiveness of the care received,” Experton said.