Apple follows Samsung into e-health
pharmafile | June 4, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Apple, Samsung, digital, healthkit, ios8, wearable
Apple has followed Samsung into the e-health arena by unveiling HealthKit, a new platform that allows users to pool their personal health data and share it with doctors should they wish.
HealthKit which is aimed at developers, will be available on iOS8 – the software behind the iPhone and iPad, and there will also be a new app called Health for consumers, Apple said this week.
Samsung launched its own mobile health device Simband last month, a ‘smart’ wristband which can be used to measure body temperature, blood oxygen levels, motion and other health metrics on a continuous basis.
Simband also features a shuttle battery which charges when the wearer is inactive, and is equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi – but the prototype smart band is not going to be sold. Rather, Samsung sees it as a ‘foundation’ for third-party developers to then build a device that incorporates ‘optical, acoustic and electronic sensors,’ Samsung’s vice president of digital health Ram Fish told reporters.
Apple’s new Health app will bring together all the information – such as heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar and cholesterol — which users’ health and fitness already collect, creating what it calls “an easy-to-read dashboard of your health and fitness data”.
Via HealthKit, users could then allow the data from a blood pressure app to be automatically shared with their doctor, for example, or get their nutrition app to tell their fitness apps how many calories they consume each day.
“When your health and fitness apps work together, they become more powerful,” Apple insists.
There are questions over what practical use such technology will be to users at present, but health and wellbeing is an increasingly attractive area for technology companies, who see possible financial dividends in tapping into the trend for self-measurement.
Of more obvious use is the emergency card with important health information such as blood type or allergies which can be created and would be available from a device’s Lock screen, Apple says.
Adam Hill
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