•The company is adding medication tracking and new workout features to its devices soon.
•The iPhone and Apple Watch now support features across 17 areas of fitness and health, according to the report.
Image: REUTERS
Apple shared a new report on Monday that outlined their health technology strategy and offered a snapshot of the ways Apple products are empowering people to be more healthy.
The iPhone and Apple Watch now support features across 17 areas of fitness and health, according to the report.
Users, developers, medical institutions, and health organizations around the world are using Apple devices, features, and APIs to break down barriers between people and their health information, all while keeping privacy in mind.
The company is adding medication tracking and new workout features to its devices soon.
“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 the many ways users are benefiting from our health and fitness features,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer.
Apple’s efforts to advance health primarily fall into two categories, which are detailed in two corresponding sections of the report.
The company plans to add capabilities related to women’s health and body-temperature monitoring as part of a new lineup coming this year.
The first section describes Apple’s focus on personal health and fitness features on Apple Watch and iPhone that offer actionable, science-based insights and help protect users health and safety.
The second section shares Apple’s work with the medical community to support research and care.
Both sections, along with an Extensions and Spotlights section at the report’s end, include a variety of examples of third-party developers, health institutions, and organisations innovating with Apple technology.
“Our vision for the future is to continue to create science-based technology that equips people with even more information and acts as an intelligent guardian for their health, so they’re no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat with meaningful, actionable insights.” Williams said in the statement.
Apple said its system can now store 150 different types of health data that is encrypted so that only users can access it.
By strengthening the physician patient relationship, Apple said it is working on allowing patients to share and discuss data collected by Apple devices so that they can monitor their health better between doctor's visits.
Apple also outlined work it is doing with medical researchers to allow them to use Apple devices to conduct studies, by building tools that will enable researchers make new discoveries.
It has also started partnering with institutions such the Stanford University School of Medicine to conduct large-scale formal medical studies.
Apple is also working on technologies such as glucose and blood pressure monitoring that could come later this or next year.