Rumors about Apple's Healthbook point to an ambitious app

Apple's planned new Healthbook app (for the iPhone and iPad) will aggregate health and fitness information about the user.

Apple is making a move into the consumer health market. The focus will be on a new app called Healthbook that is likely to be released later this year; the app will organize health and fitness information about exercise, nutrition, sleep, and vital signs. In a previous post, I described rumors that the proposed iWatch would monitor blood glucose and then store these data in Healthbook.

As reported by Mark Gurman in a 9-to-5 Mac article, Healthbook will be quite comprehensive in terms of the health/fitness data it stores, and users will be able to access this information through a distinctive card-based user-interface (Figure 1):

"Each category of functionality is a card in the Healthbook. Cards are distinguished by a color, and the tabs can be arranged to fit user preferences. As can be seen in the above images, Healthbook has sections that can track data pertaining to bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight."

There is expected to be tight integration of Healthbook with the iWatch which will function as a fitness and health tracking device, as well as with the iPhone which contains the M7 chip (accelerometer) that can track motion/activity. One possibility is that Healthbook will work exclusively with Apple devices and apps. The other possibility is that Healthbook will have an API that will allow third-party devices and apps to integrate with it. I believe the latter will be the case in the same vein as Passbook which Gurman describes:

"The first possibility here would be that Healthbook serves as a unified place for all third-party health apps on an iPhone to store their data. Just like the similarly named Passbook is a central place for iPhone users to access movie tickets, coupons, and boarding passes from other apps, Healthbook could be a single place where iPhone users can collect data from their various health apps.

Similarly, Healthbook could be a single place where the various existing third-party iOS-compatible health accessories can be set up and store their data. The ecosystem of health accessories for iPhones is plentiful, and Apple’s own online store sells fitness bands that can act as pedometers, digital weight scales, heart rate monitors, sleep trackers, pulse oximeters, and blood pressure checkers."

In this manner, all of the health information described above would not have to be acquired by the iWatch (or iPhone). As I mentioned in the previous post, I don't think it is likely that the first-generation iWatch will measure blood glucose levels which is one of the data categories in Healthbook.

In summary, Apple's Healthbook is very ambitious in terms of the breadth of information it will organize and make accessible to users. Apple is a dominant player in the mobile computing industry; clearly the company wants to leverage this position to make an impact in the consumer health arena.

"With hundreds of millions of existing iPhones and many more to be sold, Apple has the unique opportunity to recreate the health and fitness tracking market by pre-installing Healthbook in a future software update. After revamping the music, smartphone, and computing worlds with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple’s next big insight could be software for improving people’s lives. Just like tablets, pocket computers, and digital music players are now part of the mainstream, Healthbook may just be able to transform healthcare and fitness management for the betterment of society."

Furthermore, by introducing more people to the health technology world, Healthbook may have a halo effect on the whole health technology industry (from Ryan Tate at Wired):

"Finally and most significantly, an Apple healthcare app would be a validation of the utility of all health and fitness apps. Just as Facebook’s success helped fuel the success of more specialized social networks — including LinkedIn, Polyvore, and Nextdoor — Apple’s entry into the “quantified self” movement introduces the masses to ideas that can help them understand other, more specialized products in the same space. In other words, Apple Healthbook won’t just promote the fitness of iPhone users. It will boost the well being of an entire ecosystem of healthcare technology companies."

Figure 1. The likely user-interface for Healthbook (image courtesy of 9-to-5 Mac).