Fitbit to Doctors Office Connection

[Randyi]

On my last visit to my Doctors Office, I explained that I was using the Fitbit System and was given the task of finding out if it was possible to link my dashboard, or link that info directly to his system. He'd like to be able to monitor my progress from his office.

Has anyone been able to do this ??

[Biker_Bill]

Yes. It depends on the system used by your doctor. Epic is used by something like 80% of Clinics and Hospitals integrates with Apple Health and Google Fit. Fitbit refuses to integrate. I use Ochsner clinics. Even though they use Epic not using Fitbit, they have additional interface just for Fitbit through their web interface ( not app ). So some data comes from Apple Health and steps from Fitbit. 

The short answer is: it depends on your Doctors system to pull data until Fitbit integrates. 😡

[RobertoME]

Hi there @Randyi good to see you here and thank you for your answer and participation @Biker_Bill.

Indeed, it will depend of your doctor's system as was mentioned, although many of the third party integrations are not developed by us. This is initiative in some occasion  are from the third party in where they uses our open API.

It will be a good way to share your idea and feedback through our Suggestions board. If you find that a similar suggestion has already been made by another member of the community, you can vote for their idea and add your comments. Our product team looks forward to reading and incorporating your suggestions into future versions of Fitbit trackers and apps.

Thank you for your comments and hope to see your idea in our suggestion board.

[Randyi]

Thanks for your input Biker Bill... I'm kinda new to this level of tech interface... Exactly how would one go about obtainig the connection?? Do I initiate or does my Doctor ??

[Biker_Bill]

Hi @Randyi. I am not an expert either so I can only tell you about the experience of a few I know. The answer for "Do I initiate or does my Doctor ?" may be your Doctor but you would have to ask so it would be you. Question your Doctor’s staff about the system they use and the capability it has.

A few people in my family use the Ochsner Clinic system in my area. Ochsner had a good bit of investment in their own information system before the demands of the Affordable Healthcare Act caused them to switch to the Epic Healthcare Information System. However,even if you use Ochsner or if your doctor uses Epic, you may not see the features I am about to describe.

Epic I believe is currently serving like 80% of the Healthcare market. Even one of their competitors, the Mayo Clinic System, gave up their own development and sold their own multi-billion data center to Epic in some sort of a trade to convert their systems to Epic.

Epic is developing interfaces to the popular portable patient data systems. Microsoft Health Vault, Google Fit, Apple Health Kit and Research Kit are not competitors to Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, or other fitness data systems but each was intended to benefit the patient by being able to aggregate their health data from systems like Fitbit into a database they control the access and their own data.

Ochsner Website already had an interface to interface to Fitbit. I believe when they converted to Epic, they were able to adapt it to Epic. Epic does not have a direct Fitbit interface that I know about.

So if you use Ochsner, you may have your interface. If your Doctor is not in Ochsner system but does use Epic, you will have to vote that Fitbit should interface to the Apple Health database.

Still having said that, you still may not see these options. All of the people I have helped, it was an invited action. The Doctor had the send a questionnaire through the system that then enabled the interface to be seen. In the Ochsner System, it relates to a initiative to help people with High Blood Presssure. I don’t have these features myself but my wife does.

Good luck.