Sept. 19, 2018
Apple is wading into healthcare in ways that may impact how your patients access their health records, according to reporting from Isaac Krasny in MedPage Today.
“Apple made their serious healthcare debut with the release of their health records API earlier this year,” Krasny writes. “Going hospital by hospital and health system by health system, Apple is creating an increasingly expansive list of relationships that enable the company to bring your electronic health records from your provider to your iPhone. And in true Apple fashion, they’ve made it exceedingly easy.”
Apple has also been pushing forward on their wearable devices, especially with the Apple Watch, which has started to transcend basic activity tracking into to more clinically relevant health information, Krasny notes: “While the watch itself can track basic beats per minute, when paired with the KardiaBand the device is able to take a clinical-grade EKG. In tandem with a Dexcom G5 continuous glucose monitor, the Apple Watch reports live glucose readings alongside data visualizations.”
Krasny says Apple’s healthcare-related investments will probably follow a vertical integration strategy similar to what it has done in other product areas:
1. Customer owns an iPhone.
2. Customer syncs provider health records to iPhone.
3. Customer now has the choice between using an Apple health wearable that will seamlessly carry all health data back to their complete health record on their iPhone (and their provider, in turn) or using another company’s wearable.
“In hosting your health records, and maintaining the link to the provider,” Krasny writes, “Apple introduces an ease-of-use and holistic relevance to the use of health wearables that makes it almost foolish to purchase a non-Apple health device if you already own an iPhone.”
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