According to a list published by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple has recently been granted a patent for a technology involving the medical field that can help users find the right healthcare provider faster and share healthcare records quickly.
The patent for this technology is entitled “Technology for anonymously searching for healthcare providers” and is numbered “US 11636163 B2”.
In the patent, Apple states that users will often visit more than one medical facility for treatment. Users may regularly visit their nearest clinic for annual physical assessments and minor medical treatment, but for more serious conditions, they will go to a larger, more credible hospital.
Users’ electronic health records may not be complete, and often each provider uses a different EHR system for filing and maintenance.
Existing computer systems make it difficult to unify these EHR systems and there are many challenges in maintaining and connecting multiple EHR systems. Apple’s patent is a solution to the problem of inconsistent EHR data types through servers.
A summary of the report attached: The user device can send a search query to the server to obtain information about a specific medical entity. The server and/or the user device can maintain information relating to a specific medical entity in a way that is obfuscated by the server by the relationship between the specific medical entity and the user device. By doing so, the user privacy of the user device is protected.
