How To Make The Most Of Apple's Healthkit In iOS 8 With Compatible Apps

HealthKit Tracked Nutrition/Calories Burned/Activity/Biometric Readings

Before the debut of Apple’s HealthKit in iOS 8, individuals managed their fitness data through multiple apps, third party cloud services and web tools wherein some of the platforms such as Fitbit incorporated calorie counting as well as tracked activity into a universal solution, though it fragmented and worked with the company’s hardware.

HealthKit together with the Health app enabled users to track nutrition, calories burned, activity as well as took biometric readings through various apps which could be seen in one place. It has the potential of being used as a wellness and fitness tool with data on diet, exercise, activity and sleep from different sources together with serious medical tool to manage and monitor chronic conditions.

It could be considered as a dynamic platform which works behind the scenes providing a personalized experience to iPhone user, utilising the data from iPhone’s M7 or M8 sensor, enabling the user to view the health data in a single app. Being a medical tool, the HealthKit provides great values and can aggregate data from a various app or connected medical devices such as glucose meter or blood pressure cuff and consumer oriented fitness devices.

Platform More of Data Store on iPhone

Moreover it also provides the potential to automate the recording of medical metrics and if one is using connected devices, it maintains the accuracy of the data since it goes straight from the device to the associated app on the iPhone and to the HealthKit. Another possibility is that if your physician’s office tends to use electronic records system, which supports HealthKit, the data automatically is entered in the medical records.

The platform is more than a data store on the iPhone and apps can use the information from it or write information into it. There are some apps that do both though there are others which only retrieve data or input data.

The actual processing of the HealthKit data like comparing calories eaten together with the number of it burned through the course of the day or obtaining data from a fitness tracker or other devices, compiling information and then sending to the doctor is done by the third party app which sends the information to and retrieve it from HealthKit.

Medical ID Feature to Record Medical Information 

The Health app is pre-installed on the iPhone 4s or the latest running iOS 8 and helps to view all HealthKit data from all HealthKit compatible app. Besides this it also enables the user to manually edit data and includes a dashboard to visualize the data. It also includes a Medical ID feature which enables the user to record essential medical information, medications, conditions, allergies as well as emergency contacts.

The person has the option of choosing to have a Medical ID available from the phone’s lock screen in an emergency when unable to provide the same which can be accessed on tapping the Emergency button when prompted to enter a passcode and also enable the iPhone to make 911 calls when it is locked.
HealthKit is built to respect user privacy in part with permissions model which enables user to see what apps can access the data and has also barred developers from selling HealthKit information to data brokers for any purpose besides medical research, and in such a case, the data should be made anonymous.

Apple’s Upcoming Plans for HealthKit

It was reported that Apple had held talks regarding its plans for HealthKit and the upcoming services, with several companies which include the Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai, and Johns Hopkins together with the medical records providers Allscripts and Epic Systems.It was revealed by Apple that the HealhKit would be a framework that would be available to third parties for aggregation of data and for storage and would subsequently be available through a corresponding app known as `Health’, hoping that the HealthKit could serve as central hub for information obtained from third-party medical apps and hardware.

 Apple has already started working with the Mayo Clinic, Nike and Epic and it seems that other industry players are also keen in tying up their services as well, with the iOS based platform. According to sources, Apple is trying to keep away from regulatory hold ups since with the partnerships, the responsibility of keeping highly sensitive medical records and data private is very essential.

 For instance, Apple’s developer relations branch has been working with app makers such as iHealth Labs, who is the developer of specialized activity trackers as well as fitness related apps. Jim Taschetta, iHealth’s Chief Marketing officer indicates that consumer privacy issues are paramount to the HealthKit initiative.

Incorporate iCloud for Data Storage

He also offers examples of toggle which enables users to choose if they would prefer third party apps or healthcare providers to share sensitive data with HealthKit. From the technical side of Health, an Apple associate stated that the company has plans to incorporate iCloud for the purpose of data storage and informed Reuters that the data transfer and storage would be fully encrypted to Apple’s server.

Moreover, the backend of HealthKit would be designed in a way that providers would be responsible for patient’s privacy and not Apple. Apple has been in consultation or hired health experts as well as legal professionals to navigate the data privacy and regulatory policies outlined by the government agencies, in order to bring the HealthKit to the market.

The Food and Drug Administration – FDA, revealed that in June, it had discussions on mobile medical application with Apple over several meetings but details with regards to the upcoming rollout was not yet disclosed.

FDA to Work Closely with Apple

The FDA has stated that Apple will be working closely with them as they develop products in the future. They have further stated that the earlier FDA is involved and advising and Apple would be less likely to be caught by surprise in future when they intend to release a new product, and if that product must be regulated.

It was also reported, earlier this year that Apple executive were planning to meet with the FDA over same issues. HealthKit, with its robust data sharing as well as collection capabilities would be moving into uncharted water for massive distributed consumer solution and as such its launch may come across some complications with existing privacy laws and Apple on their part are preparing to work hard in order to prevent these types of incidents.