Physical Wellness
Apple Announces 'HealthKit' Platform And 'Health' App To Gather Together Health Information
As has been expected, Apple announced a new app 'Health' with a new 'HealthKit' platform that will unify together the health information generated by apps and wearables. The app and the platform will be as a part of new features in the new iOS operating system, iOS 8, also announced today at WWDC.
The new operating system for iOS device users will be available this fall.
Reportedly, the Health app will constantly monitor key health metrics such as blood sugar or blood pressure and upon noticing beyond healthy range, the app would automatically send a notification to the users's doctor.
Initially the company is partnering with Nike and Mayo Clinic to incorporate HealthKit in their apps.
"We believe Apple's HealthKit will revolutionize how the health industry interacts with people," said John Noseworthy, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO, in the press release. "We are proud to be at the forefront of this innovative technology with the Mayo Clinic app."
"That information lives in silos," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, according to Reuters. "You can't get a single comprehensive picture."
The announcement of the features follows arch-rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's announcement last week of a mobile health-data store calls Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions (SAMI).
According to experts, Apple needs to sort out the unhealthy lack of standards.
"The problem Apple will run into: No one agrees on how to measure even very simple health metrics, like the amount of activity one engages in every day. Is it minutes of activity, as apps like MyFitnessPal and Human prefer? Made-up, proprietary metrics like Nike's Fuel or Under Armour's Willpower? Or steps, as made popular by various pedometer devices like those made by Fitbit and Jawbone? And how will Apple reconcile all of those together into a single store?," wrote Owen Thomas for ReadWrite.
Chief Executive Tim Cook, opening Apple's conference on Monday, said the company has sold more than 800 million mobile devices. Some 130 million customers bought their first Apple mobile device in the past 12 months, he added.
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