Nobody escapes the fact that Apple is strongly interested in strengthening its presence in the health and medical industry, good proof of this is that it has developed specific APIs such as CareKit, an app called "Salud", and continues to expand health data monitoring capabilities through iPhone and Apple Watch. However, what has been done so far is not enough for the company, which wants to strengthen its role in this industry.
And in this sense, a new leak indicates that Apple has a work team within the team in charge of health issues, which would be working in collaboration with different organizations, developers, etc. in order to turn the iPhone into a "one stop shop" for all medical record information.
The iPhone could become the center of our Health
According to new information that has been published by the US media CNBC, Apple has a secret team working to turn the iPhone into a single gateway to all medical information.
The Cupertino Company has been paying special attention to the health sector for years in general, and it started long before the Apple Watch made its official appearance; has developed an API, CareKit, so that developers can create applications capable of helping with chronic care, and the last example I told you just a day ago with this app from Children's Hospital Boston. He also developed the Health app, has collaborated with numerous organizations and institutions of a medical nature and of course, the Apple Watch's approach to health is unquestionable, constantly trying to improve its monitoring capabilities.
With this, and other background, no one should be surprised this report in which CNBC points to Apple's intentions for transform your flagship device, the iPhone, into what they have named as "One-stop shop" for all medical record information.
The published information explains that Apple has a secret work team within its health unit that is working in collaboration with developers, hospitals and other industry groups around the possibility of integrating clinical data on the iPhone. Such “clinical data would include information such as detailed laboratory test results or allergy lists, among others.
Once users have that information stored on their iPhone, they could choose how they want to share it: with hospitals, with specific specialists, with health monitoring applications, and so on.
Obviously, plans like these require considerable cloud storage and, above all, secure. And to this end Apple would already be considering possible acquisitions of companies dedicated to hosting in the cloud that help the company manage health data in a safe and secure manner.
Apple participates in the debate as a protagonist
The report also notes that Apple has already been participating in the debate that exists about the need to solve the problem of fragmentation of health data with members of health groups from the Information Technology (IT) industry. Specifically, CNBC mentions:
- "The Argonaut Project", a private initiative that is promoting the adoption of open standards for information related to health.
- "The Carin Alliance", an organization that strives to give patients a central role in controlling their own medical data. The conversations with this organization would be being led by Bud Tribble himself, Apple's vice president of software technology, a person with a long history in the medical industry.
And hires industry-related staff
Apple has also hired developers who are involved with FHIR, a protocol for the exchange and management of electronic health records, such as Sean Moore, a software engineer with experience at Epic Systems, a major medical records company, or Ricky Bloomfield, a Duke University physician with extensive experience in medical informatics.
Ultimately, the report concludes, Apple intends to do with music what it already did with music, replacing scattered CDs and MP3s with a centralized management system in iTunes and on the iPod.