Patients and Families

Few people leave home without their smartphones making them an ideal tool for storing critical information you want to have on-hand at all times.

The first step to storing information on a smartphone device should always be to make sure that information is protected in case the device should be lost or stolen. Many phones offer two-step authentication to ensure information is protected and most apps will allow a password to access information. Make sure you use these features! When downloading additional apps on your phone for tracking health information it is important to carefully read the terms and conditions for each app regarding who they share your information with (especially with free apps).

A few ways to store information online include

• Entering it manually.
  • The most basic way to store your medical information is to manually enter them into a storage system that can be accessed on your smartphone device. The most basic way to do this is using a storage system such as Dropbox or GoogleDrive which is available for free with a Google account. These online storage systems will allow you to upload any type of document, spreadsheet, video, image or pdf you may need to access on the go. These documents can be uploaded from a desktop or laptop computer for easy editing and formatting.
  • There are also a variety of smartphone apps that allow you to manually track and store health information in an organized fashion. A few examples of apps that have been used by other members of the FOP community include: Apple Health and My MediSafe
• Link to your electronic health records.
  • Much of your health information may be stored in electronic health records (EHRs) maintained by your health care providers.
  • Health care providers now allow patients to access information stored in EHRs, such as vital signs, medications, test results, appointments and visit summaries.
  • You can access these through a patient portal provided by your hospital or using one of many smartphone apps which will allow you to sync records from all of your participating healthcare organizations in one convenient place.