Apple wants you to put your medical records on the iPhone

Washington

IMAGINE this: You are on vacation, and slip and fall at the pool. You head to the hospital, where doctors ask if you are taking any medications or have had any recent medical procedures. Instead of trying to recall the names of all your pills or your medical history while in pain, you easily pull up your medical record on your phone.

Apple, the tech giant that has been hungrily eyeing the healthcare sector for years, announced on Wednesday that it would soon allow people in certain US hospital systems to tether their medical records to their iPhones, getting easy access to seven categories of information, including immunisations, lab results or allergies.

The medical records capability will roll out through a beta available to the general public in the coming months. It is an update of a less sophisticated medical records fun…