With its planned release in early 2015, the Apple Watch would be the most groundbreaking development in the area of personalized technology. It is even more thrilling to imagine the value that it can potentially add to the healthcare industry.
Apple has created WatchKit which provides new tools and APIs for developers to create unique experiences designed for the wrist. This will allow developers to create WatchKit apps for actionable notifications which will provide timely information. Starting later next year, developers will be able to create fully native apps for Apple Watch on the iOS platform.
From the healthcare perspective, the Apple Watch has inbuilt sensors and apps that measure pulse rate, calories burned, brisk activity and how often you stand up during the day. It can also be integrated with other biosensors such as the pulse oximeters, glucometers, BP monitors, thermometers and weighing machines using the Apple Healthkit healthcare framework which was recently announced by Apple.
The new Health app gathers the chosen information from various iOS health apps and devices, and provides a current and comprehensive overview of all the healthcare data and biomarkers in one place. HealthKit APIs allow the various healthcare and fitness apps developed for iOS to communicate with each other.
An app can use specific information from other apps and may provide a more comprehensive way for managing your health and fitness. This can play a crucial role in predictive analysis and preventive healthcare. After seeking the user’s permission, HealthKit can integrate with and collect data from any health device or app, and share it with electronic health record software that in turn connects patients with caregivers.
Apple watch has the ability to pair with iPhones via WiFi and Bluetooth. This can help healthcare providers to receive healthcare data on various biomarkers from their patients in the form of live stream of data. They will be able to monitor the data their patients choose to be able to share the same through apps such as Mayo Clinic or Epic’s MyChart app that will be used to prompt the providers of possible adverse events, send instant alerts to emergency facilities and help interact with healthcare providers in real time.
For example, a patient’s blood pressure app could share its data with a physician app, such as the Mayo Clinic app, so that the doctor can provide high-quality guidance and care.
Combined with other features such as the iOS based UI, Siri natural language user interface, Digital Crown navigation tool, Retina display with force touch feature, it is a perfect platform to run all your Health and fitness apps.
HealthKit allows apps that provide health and fitness services to share their data with the new Health app and also with each other. 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.
However the use of Healthkit and Apple Watch in healthcare comes with its own regulatory and privacy challenges. To comply with regulations like HIPAA, Apple has warned developers that they must not provide advertisers with personal health data that they collect from applications built using the company’s health software and is trying to set high standards for health monitoring devices.
Some of the leading healthcare providers now believe that Apple’s HealthKit will revolutionize how the health industry interacts with people. The forerunners are surely bound to reap the benefits that this innovative product has to offer.