A major provider of diagnostic lab testing, Quest Diagnostics, this week introduced Gazelle, a secure mobile health platform that allows users to receive their lab results and manage their personal health information directly from their BlackBerry, and iPhone, and soon, Android, smartphones.  This a radical empowerment step for patients. They can see their results at the same time as their doctor -- which is potentially unnerving in terms of patient misinterpretation of abnormal results. Quest will not post potentially fatal diagnoses (HIV positivity, path tests positive for cancer, for example) before doctors have a chance to communicate directly with patients, but this is nonetheless a fairly bold move. Many patients will love it.

Gazelle users can see, store and share their vital health information with ease and security anywhere. Patients can forward results from a consultant or specialist doctor (or ER) to their primary physician, or visa versa. The program also offers an optional wallet card instructing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel how to access Gazelle in the event of an emergency.

Gazelle also features a mobile appointment scheduling application that allows patients to either enter their zip code to find a local Quest Diagnostics location, or to use the smartphone's GPS capability, which automatically identifies the patient's current location and displays the next available appointment times at the closest Quest Diagnostics locations.  Pretty cool, folks.