“Not long after Apple launched its health platform HealthKit on iOS in mid-2014, Google followed with its Android equivalent, Google Fit,” Jo Best writes for ZDNet. “But while Apple has been attracting hundreds of apps and some big name partners to its platform, Fit has been more of a low-key offering.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Low key.” As in: Nobody’s using it.
“Like Apple’s HealthKit and Health app, Fit allows Android users to bring together health-tracking data from multiple devices either into third party apps or into Google’s own health app, also called Fit,” Best writes. “The idea is for consumers to be able to track health metrics, such as steps taken, weight loss, or hours of sleep, and set measureable fitness goals.”
MacDailyNews Take: Android is an insecure joke. Nobody sane would trust Google with their health data.
“For now, Fit seems mainly to be targeting the fitness side of digital health — the apps available on Google Play are mainly involve running or working out — while Apple is also targeting medical applications,” Best writes. “Not only are healthcare providers in the US and UK using HealthKit apps as a way of getting an insight into their patients’ conditions, Apple has also built CareKit, a platform that’s for people to manage ongoing illness and medical problems, and has already signed several high-profile institutions to use it.”
“However, for now, Apple seems to be outpacing Mountain View in the segment — it has more apps using HealthKit, has several hospitals signed on to use the system for patients, and has both the UK’s main health records software companies offering integration with the platform,” Best writes. “The two main providers of electronic medical records in the US, Cerner and Epic, have already provided iOS integration through HealthKit.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Doctors can afford genuine technology devices. They don’t need to settle for some follower’s insecure knockoffs. For that reason alone — doctors own/use iPhones, iPads, and Macs — leaving out all of Apple’s other advantages (security, privacy, quality, integration, Continuity, IBM MobileFirst for iOS, CareKit, ResearchKit, partnerships, acquisitions, AI, etc.) the answer to our headline is, emphatically: No.
SEE ALSO:
Apple to expand HealthKit from tracker to diagnosis tool; new Apple Watch apps for sleep tracking, fitness levels in pipeline – September 26, 2016
Apple acquires Gliimpse – August 22, 2016
Apple rehires Flipboard co-founder Evan Doll to develop health software – August 12, 2016
Apple working on all-new, advanced health-tracking hardware; years in the making – August 9, 2016
Tim Cook hints Apple might build a health device – November 10, 2015
Apple’s Tim Cook declares the end of the PC and hints at new medical product – November 10, 2015
Apple announces new ResearchKit studies for autism, epilepsy and melanoma – October 15, 2015
GlaxoSmithKline working on integrating Apple’s revolutionary ResearchKit into clinical trials – July 13, 2015
ResearchKit, Apple’s medical data experiment, explained – May 20, 2015
Apple announces ResearchKit available today to medical researchers – April 14, 2015
Why Apple’s ResearchKit signals a golden age for health care – March 28, 2015
ResearchKit: The inside story of how Apple’s revolutionary medical research platform was born – March 19, 2015
Apple’s open source ResearchKit will change the world for the better – March 9, 2015
Apple debuts ResearchKit, giving medical researchers the tools to revolutionize medical studies – March 9, 2015
But google is “good enough” for the masses.
Forgive them, they know not what they don’t know.
Paging Doctor Betteridge, please report to the Department of Headlines, stat
Whether or not you use Apple’s Health app on your iPhone, you really should fill in the Medical ID details, especially the part naming your spouse or next of kin. You can then opt to make that information visible to emergency responders.
If you are involved in an accident or health emergency, the responders will be able to press the “Emergency” button on the screen where you enter your passcode and then press the ” *Medical ID” button to see the information that you have opted to share.
I know people who work in the emergency services and they find it very frustrating to find a locked phone with no way of quickly contacting loved ones whose contact details are almost certainly somewhere inside that phone.
MDN take … “Apple’s other advantages (security, privacy, quality, integration, Continuity, IBM MobileFirst for iOS, CareKit, ResearchKit, partnerships, acquisitions, AI, etc.)” …
Analysts who look only at hardware in the mobile phone competition are only seeing part of a much larger picture. Expansion of this ecosystem is how Apple intends to make the dominance of the iPhone unassailable. On iPhone, Apple is still firing on all cylinders (just don’t talk to me about Macs). I would not want to be working for the competition because I would be hard pressed to figure out how to stop Apple’s dominance of the mobile phone market.