The team behind the app has the lofty aim of granting patients more control over their care. Watch video
HACKENSACK -- Dr. Shafiq Rab, the energetic vice president of information technology and chief information officer at Hackensack University Medical Center, said the team behind the hospital's new smartphone app did not set out to make something flashy.
"It's not a sexy app," he said. "It's just a great, simple app."
Indeed, the app has an unsexy name: HackensackUMC Mobile Access. But it has the lofty aim of granting patients more control over their care.
It has several functions. The app allows users to look up symptoms, find doctors and make appointments. It also provides ER wait times and reminders for upcoming appointments. And if patients use MyChart, they can access test results, send their doctors data from fitness trackers and send and receive messages from their doctors.
The app can also help reduce paperwork. Before seeing the doctor, most patients are first greeted by a clipboard with several forms to fill out.
On the app, when users first make an appointment, they must register as a patient. This involves taking a selfie, scanning their driver's license to verify their identity, then scanning their insurance card, then filling out their forms, all at home.
The app then checks to see if the user has an existing electronic medical record. If not, it creates a new one.
Eventually, the app will include a "Track My Health" feature.
"This is the most revolutionary part of the app," Rab said.
The feature allows a patient to easily get a copy of their medical record and alerts them when a doctor looks at that record. Though the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and state law allow patients to receive a copy of their record, it can take up to 30 days after a written request.
Rab and the information technology team at HackesnackUMC are part of the Argonaut Project, an effort to come up with a standard for electronic health records. Such records, made by multiple vendors, don't always play well together, hampering the exchange of patient information.
In 2015, Rab was invited to the White House to take part in the Precision Medical Initiative Summit, a panel discussion on health care that included President Barack Obama.
"We want patients to have control," Rab said. "Without that healthcare's not going to change."
Close to a dozen people worked on the app, Jose T. Lozano, chief of staff adn vice president for corporate services and governance at the hospital, said.
"We wanted to develop something no other hospital in the country is providing for their patients," he said.
The app has been live since February, but the hospital is still working to bring doctors into the system.
"We are just the beginning," Rab said. "I want others to copy, others to make it better so that we as a nation can prosper."
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.