“Ttechnology giant [Apples]’s new mobile operating system includes features that make it easier for clinicians to collect and track data from health and fitness tracking applications embedded in patients’ devices,” Clint Boulton reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Apple’s new health care focus comes with consumer interest in wearable devices increasing and health care providers focused on preventative care, a goal made easier through better monitoring of patient health.”
“Hospitals are under federal regulatory pressure to improve how they treat patients. One way to do this is by encouraging and making it easier for patients to share anything from glucose counts to blood pressure levels – health indicators that are becoming increasingly easier for users to track courtesy of fitness trackers and apps and accompanying hardware made for devices such as the iPhone,” Boulton reports. “But the data generated from these apps and devices cannot be extracted to a third-party platform that clinicians would be likely to use. This makes it difficult for them to create a holistic profile of patient health.”
“Apple is trying to change that with HealthKit, a software framework it is including in iOS 8 this fall,” Boulton reports. “With an aggregation framework that could federate data exchange between 40,000 iOS health apps currently in its app store, Apple is taking on an emerging middleman role at a crucial time in the evolution both of health-care management and the growth of the wearables market. That role could grow if it launches a wearable device, which could track sleep activity, blood glucose and blood oxygen levels.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
U.S. FDA details high-level meeting with Apple: ‘Moral obligation to do more’ with health, innovative sensors – June 9, 2014
How Apple is leading the healthcare wearables revolution – June 8, 2014
Apple needs to fix its dreaded maps first before doing anything extra. These health apps need good maps and at the moment apple maps is pathetic. Eddy Cue needs to haul is big bum and get maps sorted
Why are maps so important to healthKit that you think it should be put on hold?
Nothing wrong with health kit, however if these health kits use maps then the health kit app will not work properly in places like UK, with the apple health kit using google as the default would not be feasible, infact using google map with apple health kit is laughable. Either ways big bum eddy cue needs to fix apple maps, his incompetence with iTunes radio made African doctor by the name of Dre a rich neeggaa
Don’t like your Voodoo.
Well I am very delighted at your unhappiness 😆, made my day 😛
BS: Apple Maps has worked perfectly for me. You must be inputting Mt Views address, no map can find that black hole.
In UK apple maps is no good, it may work in the US which is no good to me. I reported many errors on apple maps regarding my area in London and after a year the errors have not been fixed. Google maps is more dependable in UK
Been pretty much fixed in Oz (and it was comparatively bad for here a year ago). I use Maps all the time, though not for actual navigating in the car – I have a Garmin nuvi for that! (Horses for courses).
Rubbish it works fine for me, not perfect I accept but its hardly a deal breaker by a long way and will no doubt receive a big update by the time Healthkit gets into the wild if it is so integral to its performance.
Maps works great in SoCal.
Not in London and many parts of UK, where google map is king
My reported error in the UK has been fixed – belatedly albeit.
I now live where I thought I lived, not 6 miles down the road.
So, there is some progress!
What’s a mile?
Rubbish again I use it by preference to Google maps most of the time.
HealthKit is nothing more than FitnessKit. It does nothing to meaningfully track diagnoses and medications. These are the major missing pieces.
Tracking steps taken and calories are cute, but not something that will alter/affect/improve ones care at a Hospital.
Oh God where have I heard this sort of thing before oh yes before every Apple launch. Lets see what Healthkit is shall we before writing it off with ill conceived, ill informed comments like that based on exactly no real world experience. Pure Fud otherwise.
I’m an iOS developer and emailed the HealthKit team. They confirmed this will not be part of HealthKit when it is released.
Conflicted. See the benefits to using iPhone to track activity and monitor vital signs. Suspicious of Health Insurance Industry monitoring activity and denying claims based on insufficient activity. Big Brother isn’t necessarily Government.