The dawn of Apple's Health and HealthKit

In previous posts I have alluded to the impending arrival of a new health app from Apple, codenamed "Healthbook", and written about extensively by Mark Gurman. On Monday along with the release of iOS 8 and the new version of MacOS X, Apple announced the new "Health" app and the "HealthKit" developer tool:

"Health. An entirely new way to use your health and fitness information. The new Health app gives you an easy-to-read dashboard of your health and fitness data. And we’ve created a new tool for developers called HealthKit, which allows all the incredible health and fitness apps to work together, and work harder, for you. It just might be the beginning of a health revolution."

So what was formerly referred to as Healthbook will be the Health app. It will store, display, and update the user's health data from a variety of health/fitness trackers and apps. These data include heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol among others.

HealthKit allows this collection of data from both native (Apple) and third party (non-Apple) sources. It is roughly equivalent to the Nike+ API I wrote about earlier. There I mentioned that an API is a software tool that allows third-party applications the ability to access data from within the native (Apple) software given the appropriate user permissions. In this manner, these applications can take advantage of your stored health/activity data. For example, one can build an app that measures the number of calories you have eaten, and then compares that to the number of calories you have burned (from your activity tracker), and then broadcasts the difference to your friends on Facebook. HealthKit is going to enable an ecosystem of apps and devices to take advantage of the iOS platform.

Moreover, one consequence of HealthKit is a potential tie-up with the medical industry. One can imagine that your healthcare provider would be interested in some of the data in the Health App, or even provide an app to monitor your condition that could be integrated via HealthKit. Conversely some of your medical records could be made more accessible to the user by displaying within the Health App.

Thus, it was not surprising that Apple's announcement included Epic Systems and the Mayo Clinic as partners for the launch. Epic Systems is one of the largest providers of electronic health records (EHRs) which are used by doctors and hospitals to store patient data in a computer accessible form. Ultimately the goal is to merge personal health records (PHRs i.e. data the patient collects) with EHRs (data that doctors collect):

"By including Epic Systems and Mayo Clinic in the announcement, Apple was eager to demonstrate big healthcare partnerships as strong validation of the health value. The idea being that data captured via sensors communicating with HealthKit could then be uploaded into electronic health records like Epic’s My Chart and that data from My Chart could also (at some point) be available on an iPhone.

For those who have seen the rapid rise (and subsequent demise) of Personal Health Records (PHR’s) it’s all a bit too much Deja Vu ‒ all over again. Yet another “platform” for collecting/aggregating and then “sharing” our personal health data. Quick, name a software company that doesn’t want as much of that as they can legally grab?

Some of this we’ve seen before with Google Health (RIP ‒ 1/1/2012), Revolution Health (RIP ‒ 2/1/2010) and then “last-PHR-standing,” Microsoft's Healthvault ‒ which has a solid pulse but unknown usage."

This unification of your personal and medical health information could yield valuable dividends by facilitating communication of data between patient and doctor. More accurate and up-to-date information (e.g. adherence) could be sent to your doctors, while medical alerts and care could be made more accessible and prominent by showing up in the Dashboard of your iPhone Health App:

"Apple highlighted HealthKit through a new Mayo Clinic app under development that would offer users a more personalized experience and make their health data more actionable in supporting healthier lifestyles. Integrating with Apple’s new HealthKit, Mayo Clinic patients and consumers will be able to more easily access personalized health information, guidance and care when they need it. Mayo Clinic patients will continue to securely access their patient information and services, but in the future, they will increasingly be able to organize and act on their health and wellness data in a more seamless manner. Users will be able to monitor various HealthKit parameters through an easy-to-interpret dashboard, which highlights trends and flags values that may need attention. Developments about the free HealthKit app will be announced as they become available."

Now that Apple has tipped its hand in the health arena, it will be interesting to see how many resources they put behind their Health and HealthKit products.

Video 1. Introducing Apple's Health App and HealthKit.