VA updates Blue Button, PHRs
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released significant enhancements to its VA Blue Button technology, which enables veterans to download their personal health information from the VistA EHR system.
Rather than a long and confusing to read text file, the agency said that users now can access a standards-based Continuity of Care Record that better organizes the information. They also have access to clinical notes from their appointments and hospital stays.
Other new information now available via the VA’s My HealtheVet personal health record includes demographics, problem list, admissions and discharges including the discharge summary, lab results, pathology results, vital signs and readings, radiology reports and electrocardiogram reports. Self-reported food and activity journals also are available via Blue Button.