RaduTyrsina
News Team
Apple's new Health apps is meant to be a personal and central data collection point that can directly monitor and analyse an individual's biochemistry and physiology for medical and general fitness purposes. And now according to a fresh report coming from Reuters, it seems that the service is getting mass adoption in the United States.
Christina Farr reports that 14 of the top 23 hospitals in the U.S. have either already rolled out a pilot program using Apple's iOS 8 Health app or they plan to do so in the near future. The journalist reports:
"Apple Inc's healthcare technology is spreading quickly among major U.S. hospitals, showing early promise as a way for doctors to monitor patients remotely and lower costs. Fourteen of 23 top hospitals contacted by Reuters said they have rolled out a pilot program of Apple's HealthKit service - which acts as a repository for patient-generated health information like blood pressure, weight or heart rate - or are in talks to do so."
The app will allow physicians to track and report patients' weight, blood pressure, heart rate and other factors, letting them "watch for early signs of trouble and intervene before a medical problem becomes acute".
Hospitals will be able to use it to "avoid repeat admissions, for which they are penalized under new U.S. government guidelines, all at a relatively low cost."
According to Reuters, Apple "recruited informal industry advisors, including Rana and John Halamka, chief information officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, to discuss health data privacy and for introductions to the industry."
Source: Reuters
