Physicians Key To Blue Button Initiative Enrollment

Experts stress physicians’ attitude toward Blue Button, which has the ability aid in making more informed healthcare decision, will determine its future

There is plenty of excitement surrounding Blue Button – described by Christopher Rasmussen of the Center for Democracy and Technology in a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article as “an information exchange between the provider and patient” – and for good reason. The initiative allows patients to easily download, view, and transmit their health information on the web. Blue Button can even be used by patients "to steer health records from an old provider to a new one, for the purposes of getting a second opinion," said Rasmussen.

Blue Button began as an initiative of the federal government and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to allow veterans to access health data online. Healthcare Technology Online quotes Craig Luigart, CIO for Health with the Veterans Health Administration and a Blue Button user, as saying, "The point of Blue Button was to make health data available to the patients. [...]."