Apple is Reportedly in Discussions With Health Care Providers About HealthKit

[RaduTyrsina]

HealthKit is an upcoming feature in iOS 8 which will allow apps that provide health and fitness services to share their data with the new Health app and with each other. Thus, a user’s health information is stored in a centralized and secure location and the user decides which data should be shared with your app. And now it seems that Apple is getting serious about extending this feature to more health care providers.

After having already struck a partnership with the Mayo Clinic, Apple has reportedly discussed the health data tracking software with Mount Sinai and Johns Hopkins among others, according to a recent report coming from Reuters. Here are some more details:

Apple Inc has been discussing how its "HealthKit" service will work with health providers at Mount Sinai, the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins as well as with Allscripts, a competitor to electronic health records provider Epic Systems, people familiar with the discussions said.

hile the talks may not amount to anything concrete, they underscore how Apple is intent on making health data, such as blood pressure, pulse and weight, available for consumers and health providers to view in one place.

Currently, this data is being collected by thousands of third-party health care software applications and medical devices, but it isn't centrally stored. Apple also hopes physicians will use this data to better monitor patients between visits – with the patient's consent — so the doctors can make better diagnostic and treatment decisions.

Apple said that many medical institutions had already signed on as partners, and probably their names will be disclosed at the unveiling of the next iPhone. Forrester Research's health care analyst Skip Snow, said the following:

"Apple is going into this space with a data play. They want to be a hub of health data."

However, HealthKit could face problems related to the privacy and regulatory requirements and many decades-old IT systems, according to Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT, a Washington-based organization that represents mobile app developers:

"Everybody is knocking on the door,. But I doubt that HealthKit will merge with all the existing systems."

Brian Gardner, an expert in mobile research and development, said many physicians are thinking about how to leverage patient-generated data from apps and devices.

"Apple has engaged with some of the most important players in this space. Platforms like HealthKit are infusing the market with a lot of new ideas and making it easier for creative people to build for health care."

What's your take on HealthKit? Do you see it as an useful feature or not?

Source: Reuters

 

[skimonkey]

I think this is great. Empowering people to take healthy living is important and adding applications to mobile devices will make it easier for them to track and monitor.

The biggest barrier that I see happen is the compliance aspect and whether these new applications comply with HIPAA and Patient Privacy Regulations. On top of that, whether these new applications are also compatible to the platforms used in major Health Systems. I see this at my Health System . We currently use Epic and have used it for many years. The new applications we would like to utilize for our patient population faces challenges of meeting government regulations/health electronic systems.