“When Tim Cook revealed the Apple Watch on September 9, 2014, many digital health champions were both surprised and disappointed by the relative lack of embedded health technology; based on the rumors that had been coming from Cupertino – and documentation of at least one meeting with the FDA – many of us had expected a bit more,” David Shaywitz writes for Forbes. “Monday’s Wall Street Journal explains what happened, and provides what may be an important cautionary tale for both digital health and the ambitions of big data in healthcare. ”
“According to the Journal, Apple executives originally ‘envisioned a state-of-the-art health-monitoring device,’ yet the watch the company plans to release in April includes none of the most exciting technologies the company was considering. The reason? ‘Much of the health-sensor technology failed to meet Apple’s standards,’ reports the Journal,” Shaywitz writes. “Let’s think about this for a minute. While all sorts of companies, big and small, are jumping into wearables, touting the potential to disrupt, transform, reinvent, and revolutionize health, Apple devotes four years and a huge amount of resource to exploring this space, then emerges with the conclusion that essentially, much of the technology isn’t quite ready for primetime.”
“You need to give a lot of credit to Apple for taking the long view of digital health. It must have been tempting to include some sexy health technology into the watch — and you know they could have sold it,” Shaywitz writes. “Yet, by holding the line on quality, and rigorously evaluating – and appropriately rejecting – candidate features, the company is demonstrating a respect for the customer that’s lacking in the many businesses — not all startups — rushing into this space with specious claims of efficacy and impact.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]