iPhone maker Apple is all set to disrupt the conventionalities of medical data storage methodologies. The company has announced the development of a new health record app, a new standard that has been adopted by many big companies for transferring records across scattered systems. Apple is all set to break the traditional systems of several silos in which medical data is stored.

The new health apps were announced by Apple in January and it stated that it was entering into partnerships with hospitals Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins Medicine and Penn Medicine and electronic medical record companies including Epic Systems, Cerner, and Athenahealth.

From state to state, charges for records are different and hospitals receive requests for records personally, via snail mail or fax, through a phone call or messages on a proprietary online portal. The extensive proliferation of data across several communication platforms calls for the implementation of stringent privacy standards and security protocols. It is pertinent to note here that medical centers are still operational on older systems with legacy software widely used by 78 percent of physician practitioners in the U.S. as of 2013. As per a 2016 report in the online journal “Perspectives in Health Information Management,” it was apparent that one-third to two-thirds of physicians surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with the technology.