Rumor: Apple's next-gen iOS 8 to include 'Healthbook' app for comprehensive health monitoring

Posted:
in General Discussion edited March 2014
A report on Friday claims Apple is working to incorporate a new built-in app dubbed "Healthbook" into its next iOS iteration, with the software able to track everything from food intake to glucose levels.



Citing sources familiar with the plans, 9to5Mac claims the codenamed "Healthbook" will be able tap into data from advanced sensors possibly built into next-generation iOS devices -- including the so-called "iWatch" -- to track a variety of metrics via a swipe-able card UI.

On the health side, "Healthbook" can reportedly track blood pressure, hydration level, heart rate and even glucose level measurements. As for blood readings, Apple's recent hire of Michael O'Reilly may play an integral role in the development of such technology. Prior to joining Apple, O'Reilly was the chief medical officer and executive vice president of medical affairs at pulse oximeter firm Masimo Corporation.

In addition to data aggregation, the app may have hooks into other first-party software like Calendar and Reminders, allowing users to create medication reminders. In its final form, "Healthbook" could be a one-stop solution for nearly all things medical.

As for fitness, the app is said to include the usual steps taken and distance measurement data, while adding in daily caloric intake and weight tracking.

Perhaps the most interesting implication of an app like "Healthbook" is the hardware needed to generate raw data -- hardware that does not yet exist in Apple's ecosystem. Currently, Apple's M7 motion coprocessor allows for accurate measurement of step and distance traveled, but falls short of physical body readings like those purportedly coming with the new app.

One answer would be the intorduction of a peripheral device, such as a watch, that incorporates advanced components like a thermometer, galvanic skin response sensor, blood oximeter and more. Data can then be offloaded to an iPhone via Bluetooth, processed and recorded.

Apple's timeline for a rollout of the supposed app and corresponding hardware is largely unknown, but it can be expected that a next-generation iOS and iPhone will be released as per the company's usual annual product cycle.

Adding fuel to the rumor fire, a The New York Times report on Friday noted Apple SVP of Operations Jeff Williams, VP of Software and Technology Bud Tribble, Michael O'Reilly and government affairs counsel Tim Powderly met with the FDA in December to discuss "mobile medical applications." The nature and outcome of the meet-up remains unknown.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 124

    Hi, I'm a Wall Street analyst and this pie-in-the-sky rumor does not match what our internal predictions are for iOS8. We are expecting Apple to release a native portfolio tracking application, that allows high-wealth customers to track their net worth with hourly alerts. 

     

    Since this rumor does not match our real predictions, I am downgrading Apple to a SELL. 

  • Reply 2 of 124
    The M7 is part of where Apple is headed; Apple likes to prepare the hardware ahead of time to handle the next big thing, so recent purchasers don't get butt-hurt. A simple change to firmware and the 5s is ready to go and Apple will have a 50 to 100 million user installed base (albeit maybe not full-featured like the iPhone 6), starting out day one.

    Perhaps you may have noticed the up-tick in articles relating to food waste, both in the USA and Europe. If the new device could help with that one thing, the cost of the device would be recovered in less then a year. How tough would that be to market??!
  • Reply 3 of 124
    Yawn.
  • Reply 4 of 124
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    How exactly is Apple planning to do glucose level measurements?
  • Reply 5 of 124
    I really think the puzzle may be forming before our eyes.
  • Reply 6 of 124
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    I suspect that healthbook will either be a free downloaded app to go with some iWatch rig. Or it will be like Newsstand and passbook, an auto congregating faux app that developers can link to. Such that your data from several apps can be in one place.

    Such apps could be very useful. They could also perhaps create a social feed 'app' that buckets your social networks Newsstand style but gives you a 'front page' of all your feeds together. Either 'ticket' style like Passbook or in one mass feed by date and time.

    Perhaps even Passbook might bucket the apps that use it.

    Although with any of them I would hope there would be a user control for each app so that we could decide if we want to use it or keep things separate. Even if it was all or nothing for each group
  • Reply 7 of 124
    Deleted. See below.
  • Reply 8 of 124
    tbehunin wrote: »
    Yawn.

    What a stupid response.

    Health care us 18% of US GDP. Any slice you can get of that 18% is HUGE.

    Moreover, this is 3-5 years out. (Nowhere as laughably out like 10 years for Amazon drones, 15 years for Google Glass and 25 years for driverless cars).
  • Reply 9 of 124

    With 3 out of 4 Americans either overweight or obese, I think Apple is onto something here. 

     

    People need something to show that as adults, they can't continue to eat like five-year-olds at a carnival! 

     

    I recently read a neurosurgeon said, when you're 30#'s overweight, you're pre-diabetic and when you're pre-diabetic, you get everything, i.e., High blood pressure, hypertension, heart disease, inflammation, immune deficiency disorders, kidney disease, cancer including liver, pancreas, endometrium, colon and rectum, breast, bladder to name a few.

     

    And if it hasn't been proven yet, I think there is a direct correlation to too much sugar in our diet and Alzheimer's and dementia in our latter years.

     

    Lovely.

  • Reply 10 of 124

    I was hiking with my MD daughter and I showed her an heart rate app, where I put my index finger over the iPhone camera lens and flash, hold for about 15 seconds and it gives me my heart rate.

     

    She then held my wrist looked at her watch and got the same number. Pretty cool.

     

  • Reply 11 of 124
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    How exactly is Apple planning to do glucose level measurements?

    From what I remember reading (sorry, forgot the source) it seems as though they plan to use a microneedle array of some sort that measures interstitial fluid (basically the fluid in the tissue but outside of your blood vessels). Apparently it just feels like sandpaper. Needless to say, if Apple can get the FDA to approve it as a replacement for finger sticks this will be truly revolutionary.

  • Reply 12 of 124
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I was hiking with my MD daughter and I showed her an heart rate app, where I put my index finger over the iPhone camera lens and flash, hold for about 15 seconds and it gives me my heart rate.

    She then held my wrist looked at her watch and got the same number. Pretty cool.

    <img alt="" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="37999" data-type="61" src="http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/37999/width/200/height/400/flags/LL" style="; width: 200px; height: 300px">

    I don't know who had it first but it's a clever repurposing of included camera and flash but I discovered this in the XMotion app after the iPhone 5S was released. One thing I wonder is if Apple would make heart/pulse monitoring something that it always working or make it something you have to actively do. The pros of being constant and automatic are that it removes the user from having to do anything and it can get more data over longer periods which could lead to better warnings and/or results. The downsides are battery costs and needing a device that is so close to the body that it's probably not only uncomfortable but also impractical outside of just being a sports-related device. Checking it on occasion is probably good enough, and Apple could design it to remind you to check it at various intervals and then keep your iCloud Healthbook data automatically cataloged, graphed, and analyzed for you.
  • Reply 13 of 124
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I don't know who had it first but it's a clever repurposing of included camera and flash but I discovered this in the XMotion app after the iPhone 5S was released. One thing I wonder is if Apple would make heart/pulse monitoring something that it always working or make it something you have to actively do. The pros of being constant and automatic are that it removes the user from having to do anything and it can get more data over longer periods which could lead to better warnings and/or results. The downsides are battery costs and needing a device that is so close to the body that it's probably not only uncomfortable but also impractical outside of just being a sports-related device. Checking it on occasion is probably good enough, and Apple could design it to remind you to check it at various intervals and then keep your iCloud Healthbook data automatically cataloged, graphed, and analyzed for you.

    Yep, a lot of considerations....I know you know this, but I think the M7 has been designed, i.e., low pwr demand for exactly the things you describe. In other words an always on approach.  Imagine the Apple iWatch on your wrist detecting your HR and sending it to your iPhone.

     

    Also, Heart Variability Testing is becoming quite popular. You wake up and before you get out of bed you take your HR and based on the results it can tell you if this morning is a good time to go for a run or it's best to wait another day for recovery. Pretty cool.

     

    I take your point that Sports and Fitness seem to be the easier applications to start with as opposed to say, "senior health." No sarcasm, intended.

     

    Best regards.

  • Reply 14 of 124
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    Meanwhile Google is working on metal bodies to house your brain after they remove the free will part.

    I just fear for Steven Moffat's safety.
  • Reply 15 of 124

    Samsung will add something similar to their next phone and claim they thought of it first just to beat Apple to the headline.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tbehunin View Post



    Yawn.

     

    For people like me who use a downloaded app (MyFitnessPal) it would be nice to have a fully fleshed out Apple app that has more options and can easily be tied into and used across Apple hardware.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    How exactly is Apple planning to do glucose level measurements?

     

    You must either urinate or cut your finger and bleed onto the screen. /jk obviously

     

    But really, I have a glucose app on my phone where I test my blood the conventional way and enter the results and details into the app to keep track of it and show my doctor. Guessing this is what Apple will ofter, not actually a way to use the phone to test your blood sugar.

  • Reply 16 of 124
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    This is where controlling the entire widget will pay off. Fair play mr Cook.
  • Reply 17 of 124
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    For people like me who use a downloaded app (MyFitnessPal) it would be nice to have a fully fleshed out Apple app that has more options and can easily be tied into and used across Apple hardware.


    You must either urinate or cut your finger and bleed onto the screen. /jk obviously

    But really, I have a glucose app on my phone where I test my blood the conventional way and enter the results and details into the app to keep track of it and show my doctor. Guessing this is what Apple will ofter, not actually a way to use the phone to test your blood sugar.

    They may have accessories. Aren't there glucose measuring devices already? Hook em up.
  • Reply 18 of 124
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,757member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tbehunin View Post



    Yawn.

     

    Charles Icahn? Is that you.

  • Reply 19 of 124
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    How exactly is Apple planning to do glucose level measurements?

     

    Raman spectroscopy is clinically accurate, works in a highly absorbing and scattering environment (skin) and perhaps, just maybe, could be miniaturised. Further, a multitude of analyses can be performed. I think Apple is about to revolutionise health care with a bloody phone. :wow:

     

    http://web.mit.edu/spectroscopy/doc/papers/2002/Bloodanalysis02.pdf

     

    http://sites.weinberg.northwestern.edu/vanduyne/files/2012/10/2004_Young.pdf

     


    You can trust me, I'm a dentist (no, not really)!
  • Reply 20 of 124
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    rogifan wrote: »
    How exactly is Apple planning to do glucose level measurements?
    This is just the app. How sensors will be attached, work and communicate with the app is for Apple to know and us to speculate. Aha ok there is no reliable glucose sensor available now but it will come. Maybe Google's contact lens will communicate with this alleged app?
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