HEALTH BOOST
Fresh ideas for Apple Watch
So far Apple Inc.’s HealthKit has mostly collected fitness data from its devices. In the future, if the company gets its way, the software will interpret that information, turning it into advice for users, doctors and others.
Scores of health-care experts hired by Apple in recent years are building improved electronic health record software that can better analyze and understand the implications of patient data, according to people familiar with the team’s plans.
The iPhone maker is also working on new apps for the Apple Watch. One helps users track sleep patterns, one of the people said. Another app gauges fitness levels by measuring the time taken for the heart rate to fall from its peak to resting level, according to one of the other people. Apple already has an app that measures heart rate, but doesn’t interpret that data.
The ultimate goal of Apple’s medical technology team is to turn HealthKit into a tool that improves diagnoses, the people said. The system could chip away at two problems that plague the industry and have stumped other specialist firms in the field: interoperability — allowing data to be transferred from hospital to hospital across different databases; and analysis — making it quick and easy for physicians to extrapolate salient information from mountains of data.
Chief executive officer Tim Cook wants Apple to do more in software and services to secure new sources of revenue and make customers more dependent on the company’s devices. The $8 trillion global health-care industry is a big opportunity.
“If you drive for a while and your car gets too hot, it says pull over. If you need an oil change, it says check your oil. What’s the equiva- lent for the body?” Cook said at a May conference in Amsterdam. “Health is a huge issue around the world and we think it’s ripe for simplicity and a new view.”
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
Earlier this year, Apple bought Gliimpse Inc., a startup that built software to pull electronic health records from different databases and in different formats, then store them in one place.
Apple health software could become a revenue driver, too, by keeping people wedded to the company’s devices. If a patient’s health records, and related suggestions, are accessible through Apple’s sys- tem, it would be harder to trade in an iPhone for a smartphone running Google’s Android operating system, and its health-tracking software Google Fit.
It’s unclear how soon improvements to Apple’s HealthKit may be introduced. ResearchKit, another Apple software, lets research institutions and drugmakers conduct clinical trials using iPhone apps, and some of the trials hint at possible future applications for HealthKit. Each clinical study using ResearchKit brings Apple a step closer to embedding itself in hospitals, labs and doctors’ surgeries.
North Carolina’s Duke University developed a ResearchKit app using the iPhone’s front-facing camera to conduct facial recognition checks that try to screen for and diagnose autism. Johns Hopkins University is using the Apple Watch’s accelerometer and heart-rate sensor to track the onset and duration of seizures and try to predict them. In July, GlaxoSmithKline Plc became the first drug maker to start a ResearchKit clinical study.
Apple’s greatest hurdle for now is proving to medical professionals that data delivered from wearables through HealthKit and ResearchKit is reliable.
Brennan Spiegel, a gastroenterologist at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital, said clinical studies are crucial to making wearables useful.
“It doesn’t matter how sophisticated the technical solution is,” Spiegel said. “What matters is whether the data going into that solution are generating clinically valuable, actionable results that’s improving human health in a way that’s cost-effective.”
If you need an oil change, (your car) says check your oil. What’s the equivalent for the body?