HealthKit

Apple today unveiled a hearing health experience for the AirPods Pro 2, combining hearing protection, testing, and aid in a single device. A new active Hearing Protection feature is designed to minimize users' exposure to loud environmental noises. Leveraging the H2 chip, this capability will actively reduce louder, more disruptive sounds at a rate of 48,000 times per second. This is a...

Apple today is releasing a detailed new report highlighting the ways its ecosystem of products and services are impacting human health, from helping users keep track of their own personal health to supporting medical research and care. "We believe passionately that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes and encouraging people to live a healthier day, and we are excited about...

BlueJeans Telehealth has today announced that it will integrate with Apple's Health app to give more contextual information to healthcare providers. BlueJeans Telehealth is a HIPAA-ready virtual care system that provides a way for healthcare providers to meet with their patients via a video call, integrating with the workflows of clinical teams to replicate the experience of onsite...

Oculus owner Facebook may soon allow its Oculus virtual reality headsets to report workout data to the Apple Health app, reports Bloomberg. The Oculus iPhone app has code that would allow workouts completed with the Oculus headset to be recorded in the Health app like other workout data. The Oculus app would be able to report health-related metrics like exercise minutes and number of...

Apple today informed developers that it has released updated Human Interface Guidelines for HealthKit, providing new guidance on using the Apple Health app icon, additional guidance on using Apple Health-related terms, and new privacy and data usage guidelines. HealthKit is the SDK that allows developers to create integrations with the Apple Health app for health and fitness-focused apps,...

Strava for iOS was today updated with improved HealthKit integration, allowing users to import Apple Watch workouts into the Strava app. Prior to today's update, Strava users had to rely on third-party solutions like the Healthfit app to share workouts between the Apple's Health records and Strava. Now they can import workouts recorded on iPhone or Apple Watch directly into the app. To...

Apple considered purchasing medical clinic startup Crossover Health as part of its push into healthcare, reports CNBC. Apple is said to have participated talks with the healthcare company up until recently, but after months of discussion, no deal materialized. According to its website, Crossover Health works with major companies to provide employees with on-site medical clinics. Some of its exi...

The Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has selected nine companies to join its voluntary Pre-Cert pilot program, which is designed to foster innovation through the creation of a less restrictive regulatory framework that will lead to faster acceptance of health-related software and, in some cases, products. Companies accepted to the program include Apple, Fitbit, Johnson &...

Apple has hired the lead doctor of Stanford University's digital health initiative, Sumbul Desai, to take on an unspecified role in one of the tech company's health projects. The hire was rumored earlier this month, but Stanford Medicine confirmed it to Internet Health Management on Friday. Desai headed up Stanford's Center for Digital Health, launched by the university's School of Medicine in ...

In its quest to turn the iPhone into a comprehensive health repository for every iPhone user, Apple has teamed up with Health Gorilla, a company specializing in aggregating diagnostic information, reports CNBC. Citing two sources familiar with Apple's plans, CNBC says Apple is working with Health Gorilla to add diagnostic data to the iPhone by cooperating with hospitals, imaging centers, and...

Apple wants the iPhone to serve as a comprehensive health repository for every iPhone user, keeping track of medical data like doctors visits, lab results, medications, and more, reports CNBC. Apple is said to have a "secretive team" within its health unit that has been communicating with developers, hospitals, and other industry groups about storing clinical data on the iPhone. With all of...

At a nondescript office in Palo Alto, Apple is rumored to have a small team of biomedical engineers researching better methods for monitoring blood sugar, reports CNBC. Apple's work on glucose monitoring is said to have started with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who wanted to develop a sensor that could continuously and non-invasively monitor blood sugar levels to improve quality of life. Apple ...

Apple is researching whether iPhone and Apple Watch can be used to "passively monitor data" from patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease, according to Fast Company. Those with Parkinson's often see their doctors every six months, leaving wide gaps between visits where symptoms could improve or worsen, putting some on the wrong dose of medication. Stephen Friend, the Sage Bionetworks...

Apple has hired Duke's Dr. Ricky Bloomfield, one of the early proponents of both HealthKit and ResearchKit, for its health team, according to MobiHealthNews. The hiring was first announced by Dr. Bloomfield's colleague on Twitter and confirmed by Apple to MobiHealthNews. As Duke's Director of Mobile Strategy, Dr. Bloomfield helped Duke become one of the first hospitals to integrate HealthKit....

Apple has hired "scores of healthcare experts" in recent years to develop improved electronic health record software, with an ultimate goal of transforming HealthKit into a tool that improves diagnoses, reports Bloomberg. 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...

Apple has acquired personal health and wellness startup Gliimpse, continuing its push into the health and fitness landscape that it began focusing on with the launch of the Apple Watch. The company made the acquisition earlier in the year, according to Fast Company, but Apple has now confirmed the purchase with its usual response: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time,...

HealthKit-enabled Apple Watch app Cardiogram has received its 1.0 release, bringing native watchOS 2 compatibility, 3D Touch for supporting devices, and a redesigned interface. The app has been developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of California San Francisco's Health eHeart study, which aims to help end heart disease. The program wants to develop a way to detect atrial ...

TIME published an article yesterday that offers an interesting take on Apple's long-term plans for the Apple Watch, noting that Steve Jobs' desire to improve the healthcare system indirectly inspired its development. The article is written by technology consultant Tim Bajarin, who recently spent time at the company's headquarters and met with Apple executives involved with the Apple Watch. He...

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles, has updated its online medical records to enable access to HealthKit for more than 80,000 patients, reports Bloomberg. Cedars-Sinai joins The Mayo Clinic and Duke University Hospital as medical centers connected to the health platform, alongside more than 900 health, medical and fitness apps integrated with the service.“Th...

Apple partner IBM today announced the launch of Watson Health Cloud, designed to offer physicians, researchers, insurers and health-related companies a secure and open platform for storing health-related data. The platform facilitates the secure sharing of data from multiple types of input, from personal fitness trackers to connected medical devices to doctor-created medical records. The...