The Delaware Health Information Network, a health information exchange, is offering consumers a tool to gain access to their medical information shared between medical providers.

"When you provide transparency, you reduce the stress people feel when making healthcare decisions," said Randy Farmer, the network's chief operating officer. "Our goal with this consumer-facing program is to bring patients closer to their health information."

The newly launched program, which is supported by an extensive advertising and educational campaign, offers three consumer-based tools that can connect Delawareans with their personal healthcare information across a variety of platforms.

The Health Check Alert app will send a secure text message to advise a subscriber when a medical result has been delivered to their doctor, when a medical professional has access a patient's medical record or when a subscriber has been admitted to a hospital or emergency room.

This free service will offer greater transparency of a patient's healthcare information and may help to accelerate the identification of potentially fraudulent activity and abuse of health insurance information. It also helps improve care through better communication around patient care plans.

"Let's say you receive a secure text with information about your lab results being ready, but you haven't had lab work done," Stacey Haddock Schiller, the network's director of marketing said. "You and your medical practitioner can immediately identify and prevent another individual's health information from affecting your personal plan of care down the road."

The MDLive online service provides around-the-clock access to a Delaware board-certified physician. Doctors speak with patients by phone or video chat to diagnose non-emergency medical conditions and prescribe treatment. The service is available for $14.95 a month for an individual or $17.95 per month for a family.

Personal health information reported into the networks Community Health Record will be made available through a secure portal for a patient to see and to add to with prescription information, vital statistics and data from personal health trackers. Consumers can learn more about the products at the network's website at www.DHIN24seven.org.