Secure Patient-Physician Communication System Receives Positive Response
Newswise — NEW YORK, April 27, 2011— NYU Langone Medical Center today announced 10,000 patients are now connecting with physicians using SmartChart— the Medical Center’s secure online portal for patients to access and share personal health records with their doctors. SmartChart improves the collaboration between patient and doctor by facilitating important medical conversations and advancing the way information is exchanged. SmartChart is integrated with Epic, the Medical Centers computerized electronic medical record system that links information at NYU Langone’s main campus with its growing network of satellite offices and affiliated medical practices throughout the New York metropolitan area.
“Through SmartChart, patients can review lab results, send secure messages, schedule appointments, and submit daily health data online” said Michael Perskin, MD, assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine. “Since patients now have the opportunity to interact with and review personal health records from home, they are often more fully prepared to discuss medical concerns when they meet with their doctors.”
SmartChart is a secure online communication tool and meets the privacy of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This system uses the latest 128-bit SSL encryption technology to automatically encrypt each session. User information is protected by access codes, personal ID's, and passwords.
Patients create a single SmartChart account to share portions of their personal health records with selected clinicians at the Medical Center. Parents or guardians may also view certain family health records if they have completed a secondary access consent form. Once this form has been processed, a parent or guardian can log into his or her personal SmartChart account to connect to information regarding the family member. However, each adult may only have access to his or her separate SmartChart account.
Joint access to personal health records allow doctors to have the most updated, consistent, and pertinent patient information on hand, in real time. This is especially useful for doctors to monitor daily health data, such as blood pressure. Patients can use SmartChart to record blood pressure levels from home, and if the information requires physician follow-up, the system quickly alerts the doctor with the patient’s electronic file. In addition, SmartChart instantly attaches a personal health record to the doctor’s message or alert each time, eliminating the use of manually retrieved patient files when doctors are communicating with patients.
SmartChart is available at a growing number of NYU Langone faculty group practices and is offered to all patients as they access care at the Medical Center. More information about SmartChart can be found at www.SmartChart.com.
About NYU Langone Medical Center:NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class patient-centered integrated academic medical center, is one of the nation’s premier centers for excellence in health care, biomedical research, and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is comprised of three hospitals – Tisch Hospital, a 705-bed acute-care tertiary facility, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the first non-military rehabilitation hospital in the world, with 174 beds and extensive outpatient rehabilitation programs, and the 190-bed Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the world dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology—plus the NYU School of Medicine, one of the nation’s preeminent academic institutions. For more information, visit www.NYULMC.org.
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