Healthy Athletes Update

Andrew Bonner, left, of BHM Healthcare and Aldis Berzins, center, from Special Olympics issue an athlete his Healthy Athlete Pass. The subsequent data entered from the athlete health screenings will form the basis of the APHR.

Pilot Program to Make Electronic, Personal Health Records Available to Special Olympics Athletes

People with intellectual disabilities don’t receive the same quality of health care that others do, but Special Olympics athletes can soon receive something that would be considered a breakthrough by even the most advanced health care systems – an athlete personal health record (APHR) they can carry with them wherever they go. In a new pilot project officially launched during the World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, Special Olympics, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Health One Global kicked off this new initiative with a demonstration of the first prototype.  

“If you wanted to pick up the phone and ask someone how to do this, there’s no one to call. No one else has done this for people with intellectual disabilities,” said Dr. Stan Shepherd, Chairman of Health One Global, the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes global partner.
 
No one has done it until now, that is. The health screenings performed at the World Winter Games in Boise formed the foundation of their APHR. The results of these screenings will be loaded into their record and used as a baseline to track their future health progress. Special Olympics plans to have a complete system available for all athletes for the next Summer World Games in Athens, Greece in 2011.

The APHR will be available over the Internet and accessible by PC, laptop, PDA or cell phone. This technology will enable athletes to manage and control access to their health information with security and privacy. The APHR will also be available in multiple languages, making it available and functional for athletes worldwide.

APHR enables four major new health benefits
• Available wherever and whenever athlete seeks healthcare
• Follow up on identified problems, their treatment and outcomes
• Improve health promotion and education
• Enable continuity of information and transform coordination of care

 “We know athletes with intellectual disabilities have poor health and poor outcomes,” Dr. Shepherd said. “One approach to counter this is to empower the athlete, give them the means and the information that they can use. Special Olympics is demonstrating true global leadership,” Dr. Shepherd said.