White House Pushes Blue Button: Broader Adoption of Secure Records Downloads Sought

A new Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which seeks developers for short-term technology assignments, includes a project designed to spread the use of the Blue Button medical records secure download function. The Blue Button, popularized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, enables patients to securely download certain medical records in a simple text file.

The fellowship program was announced May 23 in conjunction with the Obama Administration's new "digital government" strategy that requires every federal agency to make at least two services available to the public via mobile applications within a year.The Blue Button effort is one of five projects in the fellowship program that will "pair top innovators from the private sector, non-profits or academia with federal government employees to collaborate on game-changing solutions that aim to deliver significant business results in just six months," according to a White House announcement...