Apple partner Mayo Clinic to reportedly demo HealthKit integration at media event
Minnesota-based healthcare provider Mayo Clinic will be part of Apple's special media event on Tuesday, one report says, suggesting medical systems solutions will play a major role in today's product announcements.
As reported by the Star Tribune, Mayo Clinic will be on hand to demonstrate the advantages of pairing a major healthcare provider with Apple's HealthKit framework, specifically as it applies to iOS 8's Health app.
Mayo was one of the first partners Apple disclosed when the HealthKit framework was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. While a final integrated product has yet to be revealed, an initial presentation described a patient taking blood pressure measurements, which are then saved for cross-referencing against previous personal results. In the case of an abnormal reading, the patient's readings and history would be automatically sent to their doctor for appropriate handling.
Reports leading up to the launch of iOS 8 have said a number of industry players have shown interest in working with the health-centric software framework. The promise of an easy-to-use, centralized storage and access repository for medical records, aggregated data from wearable sensors and other biometric data is alluring to those in the medical sector.
"They got to know us as an organization and we started to have conversations of how we could potentially interact," said Mayo Clinic's marketing director John Wald. "We didn't exactly know what it was right away but it became this data repository that would allow patients to not only collect the data but then to start to use and understand that data."
In addition to using HealthKit as a data repository, the report says Mayo is also looking to the consumer-facing Health app as a way to incentivize healthy lifestyles.
Along with healthcare providers and medical records system developers, Apple is also rumored to be in talks with insurance companies over potential partnerships.
An updated App Store Review Guideline was released to developers earlier this month and offers clues as to what Apple expects from third-party service providers. According to the new limitations, developers using the HealthKit API are restricted from storing sensitive medical data in iCloud, for example.
Apple is expected to debut an all-new iPhone lineup alongside iOS 8 and HealthKit. Also rumored to make an appearance at the event is a wearable "iWatch" device that could boast a variety of onboard sensors capable of keeping close tabs on user-generated biometric data.
AppleInsider will provide live coverage of today's event starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern, and readers can access up to the minute alerts via the official AppleInsider iOS app.
As reported by the Star Tribune, Mayo Clinic will be on hand to demonstrate the advantages of pairing a major healthcare provider with Apple's HealthKit framework, specifically as it applies to iOS 8's Health app.
Mayo was one of the first partners Apple disclosed when the HealthKit framework was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. While a final integrated product has yet to be revealed, an initial presentation described a patient taking blood pressure measurements, which are then saved for cross-referencing against previous personal results. In the case of an abnormal reading, the patient's readings and history would be automatically sent to their doctor for appropriate handling.
Reports leading up to the launch of iOS 8 have said a number of industry players have shown interest in working with the health-centric software framework. The promise of an easy-to-use, centralized storage and access repository for medical records, aggregated data from wearable sensors and other biometric data is alluring to those in the medical sector.
"They got to know us as an organization and we started to have conversations of how we could potentially interact," said Mayo Clinic's marketing director John Wald. "We didn't exactly know what it was right away but it became this data repository that would allow patients to not only collect the data but then to start to use and understand that data."
In addition to using HealthKit as a data repository, the report says Mayo is also looking to the consumer-facing Health app as a way to incentivize healthy lifestyles.
Along with healthcare providers and medical records system developers, Apple is also rumored to be in talks with insurance companies over potential partnerships.
An updated App Store Review Guideline was released to developers earlier this month and offers clues as to what Apple expects from third-party service providers. According to the new limitations, developers using the HealthKit API are restricted from storing sensitive medical data in iCloud, for example.
Apple is expected to debut an all-new iPhone lineup alongside iOS 8 and HealthKit. Also rumored to make an appearance at the event is a wearable "iWatch" device that could boast a variety of onboard sensors capable of keeping close tabs on user-generated biometric data.
AppleInsider will provide live coverage of today's event starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern, and readers can access up to the minute alerts via the official AppleInsider iOS app.
Comments
Makes sense.
Why? My grandma measures her blood pressure everyday and record it on a book everyday for the last 10 years, and bring the book to the clinic. We are just replacing the book with my phone.
I just want access to my medical records and lab results from my phone, or my doctors can gain access with it when my phone is next to his computer.
I might live in a city who ranked number 9 on the smartest city, but my doctors write my lab results on a 2 inch thick book, and my school doctors can't look at it? That's ridiculous.
On a side note, this is why I think Apple built that extra building: It's going to be a mini convention hall for companies that are on board with HealthKit (and maybe iWatch, or whatever it's going to be called) to demo how their offerings will be integrated into it.
Or a popup hospital for all the fat people having heart attacks after trying out the fitness features of the iWatch.
@ascii, you mentioned advancements in the medical field as being historic. Perhaps Apple is on the same page. Perhaps their, "We wish we could tell you more" tagline is about being able to tell you more about your health.
I really hope this is the case. And I am particularly hoping there will be non-invasive blood-glucose monitoring, though it may not pan out tonight. But Health is something I really think will take Apple to the next level.
Of course, as with everything else, non-US countries may not get all the benefits, but even the things on the Health app currently on the Betas is something I love.
This is very interesting and the implications are huge. Maybe Nike will be there to demo how their fitness apps will work with iWatch/Health. It's going to be a crazy next 4+ hours.
You'd better stay home and near your great analog system then. Some of us move from time to time and getting all that data transferred can take time. Many of us travel a great deal and access to all our medical data anytime, anywhere in seconds may be the difference between life or death. I could go on but I guess anyone touting an analog system over a digital one isn't going to be convinced very easily. You must still enjoy doing research from books at the library too I bet. It's a wonderful experience to be sure but you better have plenty of time and hope all the books were printed yesterday.
You'd better stay home and near your great analog system then. Some of us move from time to time and getting all that data transferred can take time. Many of us travel a great deal and access to all our medical data anytime, anywhere in seconds may be the difference between life or death. I could go on but I guess anyone touting an analog system over a digital one isn't going to be convinced very easily. You must still enjoy doing research from books at the library too I bet. It's a wonderful experience to be sure but you better have plenty of time and hope all the books were printed yesterday.
sigh...
20 years ago, the National Academy of Sciences said that people needed universal access to all their heatlh information. I knew and worked with people at Mayo who tried to convince the powers that be that they should have build an internet database for everyone's health information (wasn't the government, wasn't the insurance companies, was a major referring healthcare center, and had experience handling big data [they had 4,000,000 patient records... what was another 310million]). They also had IBM as their backyard neighbor [we IT people said that it was hard doing business with Mayo, as they had IBM was a bedfellow, often quite literally... MS/MBA/Ph.D. husband at IBM, M.D/M.S.N. wife at Mayo, or versa visa]
The proposers felt that 'Mayo's name' lent credence to a) the need[better patient knowledge about their healthcare, and b) the noble purpose [having a central (anonymous) record of a majority of the population's health history for quality and medical research]. Prior to HIPAA, they had implicitly built a 5 generation deep database of every person who got medical care for the 100,000pop county Mayo-Rochester was located in. Not only did they know who had cancer, they knew the medical history of that person's parents and grandparents, and often great grandparents.... the 'Rochester Project' was key in soliciting a major research dollars for genetic cancer, heart, and diabetes research. Building a national database could speed up improvements in healthcare delivery, reduce the cost of research, and generate better answers.
The proposers knew, that a solid name had to be in front of this, and that the gov't or health insurance control was risky (this was the height of 'Hillary Care' in the US, and the recent Socialized medicine in Canada and Britain). Having a 'trusted keeper' of medical information was key to it's success.
But Alas, the Doctor Leaders told the proponents that building a universal cloud service [the proposers didn't call it that, but it was exactly that... the design was to move Mayo's evolving Electronic Medical record to IBM data centers, with web interface for patients and non-member M.D.s, and secure network pipes to major medical centers and research institutions...(Mayo made more money on their medical records doing research, than they spent building the computer systems to support the clinical practice)] was 'compelling, but beyond the scope of Mayo's Mission.' In short, they didn't want to be responsible for patient data that they weren't involved in collecting, validating, and delivering the diagnostic importance to the patient. Oh, and that 'NSFnet' thing was just a fad, and not a medical tool [regardless of how we helped Mayo deliver GBs of data a day between genetic research centers, and set up secure collaborations around the globe with this 'fad', and set up their library with links to NIH and NCI for patient research]
Fast forward to today [I'm anticipating], and they are doing exactly that, but in a way that actually meets their mission... They are avoiding the housekeeping efforts of 'keeping the data' but are applying the medical standards of ensuring the usefulness and accuracy of the data for patient care use. I'm guessing that Healthkit inverts the model, and there will be millions of secure databases of health data, that are controlled by the patient, and accessible to their care providers, and totally inaccessible from the Insurance companies [who have their own database... I'm Looking at you UNITED HEALTH GROUP and your 'Ingenix' database] and the gov't(s).
Here's hoping for a dream to come to fruition.
I might live in a city who ranked number 9 on the smartest city, but my doctors write my lab results on a 2 inch thick book, and my school doctors can't look at it? That's ridiculous.
Doctors won't have the tech savvy or the desire to create the systems to change this. So someone has to do it for them. Which in the end could be the result of all of this. Us having access to our records, being able to carry them between doctors etc. Instantly. We literally just have to do some kind of sign in and link the new doctor and approve access like authorizing a computer for iTunes.
On a side note, this is why I think Apple built that extra building: It's going to be a mini convention hall for companies that are on board with HealthKit (and maybe iWatch, or whatever it's going to be called) to demo how their offerings will be integrated into it.
I agree. I think that today is THE announcement. No October event. They will offset the increase in items with fewer demos during the keynote and thus there is this great hall with everything for everyone to play with. Tables of iDevices, a fake home, gym, doctors office, mall and so on. Like a mini World's Fair type set up
The scariest part of this is if insurance companies get access to an individuals records, either they raise that person rates because their blood pressure is high one day or they promise to lower your rates if they see you are eating all your vegetables. This would be extremely invasive and the last thing I want is a corporation trying to regulate my body and life.
I think questions like that are why we kept seeing rumors of Tim talking to this and that group of folks, from the FDA down. He wanted to truly understand the issues, laws etc that were stopping this kind of stuff.
On the whole insurance thing, what's to stop them from raising your rates based on what your doctor gives them. I mean my dentist alone is filing for coverage of at least one cavity or root canal every six months. They don't need to see my X Rays to figure out I have crappy teeth so why not raise my rates. If I'm asking for coverage of medicine for a chronic condition like asthma, diabetes etc they again have plenty of cause to see me "more expensive" than other patients. They don't need to see daily data to play such games.
And the device audience is something Apple won't decide anymore than they did the iPad or even the App Store. They create the tools, the world decides how to use them. So the same device could be of use to a doctor's patient, an athletic or just someone wanting to track their workouts. And Apple doesn't make everything that is used with their devices. So no they won't be making smart walkers for your granny and more than they have made scales, blood pressure cuffs, those little toy drones et.
This is exactly what I've been predicting for the last few weeks, as well as a number of contributing members here.
John Gruber posted earlier his predictions, called "Prelude to Tomorrow’s Big-Ass iPhone Apple Event" where he states his take on what the "new product announcement" will be:
"And whatever it is, I think it will be controversial. Perhaps it will be expensive. Perhaps it will have far, far fewer features than do Android Wear devices. Perhaps it will appear under-powered at first.
But there will be something, or several somethings, that will cause it to be misunderstood by those who are only able to frame new creations in the context of what came before them. Apple’s watch won’t fit in an existing mold. It won’t be a phone on your wrist. It won’t be a watch as we know it. We already have excellent phones. We already have excellent watches. For the Apple watch to be worth creating, it must be excellent at something else."
For the record, I agree with everything JG wrote in his post, many of which I've also "predicted" here over the weeks to... OMG!... just 82 minutes until Truth Time!
1 HOURS - 22 MINUTES -> Apple 3.0