Apple Aiming to Make iPhone 'One-Stop Shop' for Medical Info

Apple wants the iPhone to serve as a comprehensive health repository for every iPhone user, keeping track of medical data like doctors visits, lab results, medications, and more, reports CNBC.

Apple is said to have a "secretive team" within its health unit that has been communicating with developers, hospitals, and other industry groups about storing clinical data on the iPhone. With all of their medical data at their fingertips, iPhone users would have a better overall picture of their health, which could also be readily shared with doctors.

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Apple has been hiring developers familiar with protocols dictating the transfer of electronic health records and has talked with several health IT industry groups, including "The Argonaut Project," which promotes the adoption of open standards for health information, and "The Carin Alliance," a group aiming to give patients more control over their medical data. According to CNBC, Apple VP of software technology Bud Tribble has been working with the latter group.

Apple is also rumored to be looking at startups in the cloud hosting space for acquisitions that would fit into its health plan.

Essentially, Apple would be trying to recreate what it did with music -- replacing CDs and scattered MP3s with a centralized management system in iTunes and the iPod -- in the similarly fragmented and complicated landscape for health data.

Such a move would represent a deviation in strategy from Apple's previous efforts in health care, the people said, which have focused on fitness and wellness.

A centralized way to store all of a person's health data would allow the medical community to overcome existing barriers that prevent the transfer of patient information between medical providers. Hospitals and doctors offices often don't have a simple way to transfer patient information, and online medical portals are sometimes difficult to use with little info available to patients,

Apple already allows iPhone users to record medical data and health information gathered by the Apple Watch and other connected devices in the built-in Health app, and it has delved into health research with CareKit and ResearchKit, but based on these rumors, the company's goal is to expand its health efforts far further in the future.

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Top Rated Comments

myrtlebee Avatar
106 months ago
Medical ID quite possibly saved my life. This past March I had a medical emergency and was unable to speak when asked questions by the medics, but was just barely able to pull up Medical ID from the lock screen before going completely out of it. I hope to see more features like this, and I'm glad Apple is investing in this field.

***Public Service Announcement (or more like a friendly plea to everyone here): Set up and make sure your Medical ID is up to date and become familiar with how to access it fast - it may just save your life!***
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mistasopz Avatar
106 months ago
In the future I look forward to Siri telling me my blood pressure is rising when I try to get Apple Maps to work properly.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stella Avatar
106 months ago
I'd like a national standard.

Not Apple proprietary.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
moxxham Avatar
106 months ago
This is great. Pair this with a future Apple Watch that can track blood glucose levels and it would be a show stopper. Glucose and constant heart rate monitoring could do wonders, even for healthy people. Imagine getting alerts when your levels are too high or you have an abnormal heart rate. Combining all this health data plus your exercise data into one app would be fantastic. Cant wait to see what the next couple of years bring.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
msew Avatar
106 months ago
('https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/14/apple-iphone-one-stop-shop-medical-info/')


Apple wants the iPhone to serve as a comprehensive health repository for every iPhone user, keeping track of medical data like doctors visits, lab results, medications, and more, reports CNBC ('http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/14/apple-iphone-medical-record-integration-plans.html').

Apple is said to have a "secretive team" within its health unit that has been communicating with developers, hospitals, and other industry groups about storing clinical data on the iPhone. With all of their medical data at their fingertips, iPhone users would have a better overall picture of their health, which could also be readily shared with doctors.



Apple has been hiring developers familiar with protocols dictating the transfer of electronic health records and has talked with several health IT industry groups, including "The Argonaut Project," which promotes the adoption of open standards for health information, and "The Carin Alliance," a group aiming to give patients more control over their medical data. According to CNBC, Apple VP of software technology Bud Tribble has been working with the latter group.

Apple is also rumored to be looking at startups in the cloud hosting space for acquisitions that would fit into its health plan.A centralized way to store all of a person's health data would allow the medical community to overcome existing barriers that prevent the transfer of patient information between medical providers. Hospitals and doctors offices often don't have a simple way to transfer patient information, and online medical portals are sometimes difficult to use with little info available to patients,

Apple already allows iPhone users to record medical data and health information gathered by the Apple Watch and other connected devices in the built-in Health app, and it has delved into health research with CareKit and ResearchKit, but based on these rumors, the company's goal is to expand its health efforts far further in the future.

Article Link: Apple Aiming to Make iPhone 'One-Stop Shop' for Medical Info ('https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/14/apple-iphone-one-stop-shop-medical-info/')
[doublepost=1497491738][/doublepost]I wish Apple health kept track of vaccines
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Plutonius Avatar
106 months ago
Not interested at all.

Hopefully, they have a setting to turn this off.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)