You know those wrist bands that hospitals put on you when you check in for a procedure? That will be one of Apple's entry points into an integrated health monitoring plus system that they want to be the de facto standard platform for the health care industry. How many times does one have to repeat "It's the platform, stupid."
Oh, and considering Steve Jobs' intimate experience with all facets of the health care industry in the last years of his life, does anyone doubt that the seeds of this new major leg of the Apple product stool weren't sown by Steve himself?
You might be on to something here. I have long suspected Apple quietly worked with Disney on the wristband used in Disney theme parks. Having patient vital information collected by the device then sent to a central hospital server in real-time would go a long way with aiding nurses and doctors with keeping updated with patients recovering in hospitals.
No matter how right or wrong the rumors are about Apple and healthcare, I am stoked that so many people are talking about Apple being the company that can change healthcare!
More stuff where I will have to share my personal info in "the Cloud" ? Sorry, not interested.
This is exactly right - especially with medical/health data. The real solution is to allow people to store this on their own computer at home. Unfortunately, I don't see Apple making that easy to do out-of-the-box.
Why not? This is how iTunes works today. You can synch with your computer or with iCloud. You are given a choice. At the same time, every purchase through iTunes Store, iBook Store, App Store I make contains a reference in iCloud so that I do not accidentally purchase content multiple times.
<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/179056/apple-planning-app-store-like-health-platform-for-connected-medical-devices-report#post_2527717" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><span>Quote:</span><div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>aplnub</strong> <a href="/t/179056/apple-planning-app-store-like-health-platform-for-connected-medical-devices-report#post_2527717"><img src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" class="inlineimg" alt="View Post"/></a><br/><br/><p>The real question will be: "How many fart apps will be allowed in this new store?"
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Ha ha! Just wait, it will be better than that. Soon you'll be able to <i>predict</i> when you next fart is coming, and plan accordingly (whatever that may entail!).
Why not? This is how iTunes works today. You can synch with your computer or with iCloud. You are given a choice. At the same time, every purchase through iTunes Store, iBook Store, App Store I make contains a reference in iCloud so that I do not accidentally purchase content multiple times.
Purchased songs can be sync'd from a computer to 5 devices, but what about email, contacts, calendar, etc.? Storing song purchases in the cloud is one thing, but the other stuff contains personal data, and any health-related hardware will contain very personal data. Personal enough that there are federal laws about how that data can and cannot be used.
Many people have concerns these days about the confidentiality of health-related data, even if they are over-sharing in other ways. I think any kind of health-related data that gets stored on Apple's (or any 3rd party) servers is going to make people stand up and take notice. Certainly there will be people that climb onboard because they'll jump on any damn new shiny gadgety thing. But I think there will be some very serious conversations nationwide about this, and that's a good thing.
I like it. But I bet it will just be the information hub for a whole new series of bathroom appliances for monitoring health. Rather than the fitness angle (obvious), I like the blood sugar, blood toxins, tissue metals, and other body composition measuring that may result. I always envisioned the 'Mayo Clinic lifestyle check-up' in a portable device (or set of devices) so that you know on a daily or weekly basis whether you are hurrying towards an early but prolonged and painful death -or- extended lifespan exuberance. Gaming your health and interfacing that with a database - now that's a whole new sector of gadgets Apple could market - even taking existing DNA sequencing to get your genome as a health risk starting point. This is what weight-watching should be - plug it in to you, daily, and plot your health trajectory.
<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/179056/apple-planning-app-store-like-health-platform-for-connected-medical-devices-report#post_2527751" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><span>Quote:</span><div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>leavingthebigG</strong> <a href="/t/179056/apple-planning-app-store-like-health-platform-for-connected-medical-devices-report#post_2527751"><img src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" class="inlineimg" alt="View Post"/></a><br/><br/><p>Why not? This is how iTunes works today. You can synch with your computer or with iCloud. You are given a choice. At the same time, every purchase through iTunes Store, iBook Store, App Store I make contains a reference in iCloud so that I do not accidentally purchase content multiple times.</p></div></div>
Purchased songs can be sync'd from a computer to 5 devices, but what about email, contacts, calendar, etc.? Storing song purchases in the cloud is one thing, but the other stuff contains personal data, and any health-related hardware will contain <i>very</i> personal data. Personal enough that there are federal laws about how that data can and cannot be used.
<i>Many</i> people have concerns these days about the confidentiality of health-related data, even if they are over-sharing in other ways. I think any kind of health-related data that gets stored on Apple's (or any 3rd party) servers is going to make people stand up and take notice. Certainly there will be people that climb onboard because they'll jump on any damn new shiny gadgety thing. But I think there will be some very serious conversations nationwide about this, and that's a good thing.
Well if it makes them stand up and take notice, at least that's good for their health!
Re security considerations: by default, my trust for Apple's servers is a lot more than for 3rd party servers. And Google? Knowing how Google reads your email, how likely are you to trust your health data with them?
Many doctor's offices and hospitals use Macs for computing and inputting data. Having an App Store section with various third party device hookups could be a big sell.
According to a recent article on this site, Apple has a very weak presence in the healthcare industry, This initiative by Apple could turn that statistic on its head...
According to a recent article on this site, Apple has a very weak presence in the healthcare industry, This initiative by Apple could turn that statistic on its head...
If Apple is in intensive care with regard to its presence in the healthcare industry, then that sounds like a good place to start. ????
Our sources are also saying that Apple has been exploring potential acquisitions of various medical device companies in recent months, including full-fledged medical product firms that are not smartphone/wearable device focused.
Apple may have made these acquisitions to obtain ownership of the sensor patents. Irregardless, if Apple wants to enter the health/medicine arena, they will need to be plugged into the info network of what's going on etc.
On another topic of privacy. I've read several posts about privacy when one's health data is in a cloud or where-ever... Many of you may not be aware that when you see a doctor or other healthcare provider for your first visit you signed away your medical privacy so that your insurance provider can have full access to everything in your medical file. Think about that for a moment.
It is ONLY whatever data you do not have your doctor's files that are really private to you. You might ask why would you want to keep some medical information separate from your doctor's files? As I stated above, whatever your doctor knows, your insurance provider knows. So, let's say you have your DNA analyzed to see if you inherited your family's heart failure gene, or if you have the gene for diabetes. If your have your doctor order this test, then he/she will know, but then so will your insurance company. So, even if you do not develop the disease, you are at a higher risk, and therefore will be charged by the insurance company as if you do have the disease. Now, with the Affordable Care Act, this may not be as bad a problem as before, and the Insurance company cannot drop you as they would before, but this knowledge could be passed on and affect the coverage your children can get or the cost of such coverage.
The Affordable Care Act stops a lot of the monkey business the insurance industry used to play on people, but if they can do an end-run on the government and gain some small edge, they most likely will do so, so until then info that may label a person as a "high-risk" — like DNA information, is best kept as private as possible.
The real question will be: "How many fart apps will be allowed in this new store?"
The next question might be, "will this device be able to evaluate a fart for a person's GI tract health?" You may want to use it to find your best seat in an "open-seating" arena by pointing it at the rear ends of people already seated... Or to find who had just eaten a super-sized bean burrito before entering a room... Or, who is wearing clean underwear today... or other personal hormonal information information... nudge nudge...
On one hand, I would love to have an Apple watch that has health tracking capabilities. On the other hand, iTunes can't even seem to get my album cover art right. I'm not sure I trust it keeping track of my blood pressure, etc.
Apple's competition can glean a bit of device info from rumors and turn out few devices that have some similarities to the hardware and maybe even some similarities to the software that Apple will eventually put out. But this article/rumor makes me think Apple's strategy/ecosystem is (again) what the competition will be hard-pressed to truly understand, and therefore slower to copy.
The big picture is what the rumor-mill will be least informative on. That's why Samsung's Galaxy Gear was more or less a small-thinking, non-strategic (other than the me-first factor) offering. Which is probably why it flopped.
Every one waiting for Apple latest iWatch devices. Let see how much it will be effective for health. I think it will brings revolutionary change for Apple.
Comments
You know those wrist bands that hospitals put on you when you check in for a procedure? That will be one of Apple's entry points into an integrated health monitoring plus system that they want to be the de facto standard platform for the health care industry. How many times does one have to repeat "It's the platform, stupid."
Oh, and considering Steve Jobs' intimate experience with all facets of the health care industry in the last years of his life, does anyone doubt that the seeds of this new major leg of the Apple product stool weren't sown by Steve himself?
You might be on to something here. I have long suspected Apple quietly worked with Disney on the wristband used in Disney theme parks. Having patient vital information collected by the device then sent to a central hospital server in real-time would go a long way with aiding nurses and doctors with keeping updated with patients recovering in hospitals.
No matter how right or wrong the rumors are about Apple and healthcare, I am stoked that so many people are talking about Apple being the company that can change healthcare!
More stuff where I will have to share my personal info in "the Cloud" ? Sorry, not interested.
This is exactly right - especially with medical/health data. The real solution is to allow people to store this on their own computer at home. Unfortunately, I don't see Apple making that easy to do out-of-the-box.
Why not? This is how iTunes works today. You can synch with your computer or with iCloud. You are given a choice. At the same time, every purchase through iTunes Store, iBook Store, App Store I make contains a reference in iCloud so that I do not accidentally purchase content multiple times.
Psh.
Why not? This is how iTunes works today. You can synch with your computer or with iCloud. You are given a choice. At the same time, every purchase through iTunes Store, iBook Store, App Store I make contains a reference in iCloud so that I do not accidentally purchase content multiple times.
Purchased songs can be sync'd from a computer to 5 devices, but what about email, contacts, calendar, etc.? Storing song purchases in the cloud is one thing, but the other stuff contains personal data, and any health-related hardware will contain very personal data. Personal enough that there are federal laws about how that data can and cannot be used.
Many people have concerns these days about the confidentiality of health-related data, even if they are over-sharing in other ways. I think any kind of health-related data that gets stored on Apple's (or any 3rd party) servers is going to make people stand up and take notice. Certainly there will be people that climb onboard because they'll jump on any damn new shiny gadgety thing. But I think there will be some very serious conversations nationwide about this, and that's a good thing.
Psh.
lol.
thanks for that. uh, kind of.
Well if it makes them stand up and take notice, at least that's good for their health!
Re security considerations: by default, my trust for Apple's servers is a lot more than for 3rd party servers. And Google? Knowing how Google reads your email, how likely are you to trust your health data with them?
According to a recent article on this site, Apple has a very weak presence in the healthcare industry, This initiative by Apple could turn that statistic on its head...
If Apple is in intensive care with regard to its presence in the healthcare industry, then that sounds like a good place to start. ????
Apple may have made these acquisitions to obtain ownership of the sensor patents. Irregardless, if Apple wants to enter the health/medicine arena, they will need to be plugged into the info network of what's going on etc.
On another topic of privacy. I've read several posts about privacy when one's health data is in a cloud or where-ever... Many of you may not be aware that when you see a doctor or other healthcare provider for your first visit you signed away your medical privacy so that your insurance provider can have full access to everything in your medical file. Think about that for a moment.
It is ONLY whatever data you do not have your doctor's files that are really private to you. You might ask why would you want to keep some medical information separate from your doctor's files? As I stated above, whatever your doctor knows, your insurance provider knows. So, let's say you have your DNA analyzed to see if you inherited your family's heart failure gene, or if you have the gene for diabetes. If your have your doctor order this test, then he/she will know, but then so will your insurance company. So, even if you do not develop the disease, you are at a higher risk, and therefore will be charged by the insurance company as if you do have the disease. Now, with the Affordable Care Act, this may not be as bad a problem as before, and the Insurance company cannot drop you as they would before, but this knowledge could be passed on and affect the coverage your children can get or the cost of such coverage.
The Affordable Care Act stops a lot of the monkey business the insurance industry used to play on people, but if they can do an end-run on the government and gain some small edge, they most likely will do so, so until then info that may label a person as a "high-risk" — like DNA information, is best kept as private as possible.
The next question might be, "will this device be able to evaluate a fart for a person's GI tract health?" You may want to use it to find your best seat in an "open-seating" arena by pointing it at the rear ends of people already seated... Or to find who had just eaten a super-sized bean burrito before entering a room... Or, who is wearing clean underwear today... or other personal hormonal information information... nudge nudge...
Apple's competition can glean a bit of device info from rumors and turn out few devices that have some similarities to the hardware and maybe even some similarities to the software that Apple will eventually put out. But this article/rumor makes me think Apple's strategy/ecosystem is (again) what the competition will be hard-pressed to truly understand, and therefore slower to copy.
The big picture is what the rumor-mill will be least informative on. That's why Samsung's Galaxy Gear was more or less a small-thinking, non-strategic (other than the me-first factor) offering. Which is probably why it flopped.
Every one waiting for Apple latest iWatch devices. Let see how much it will be effective for health. I think it will brings revolutionary change for Apple.