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Apple Highlights Its Growing Role in Promoting Personal Health and Supporting the Medical Community

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Apple today is releasing a detailed new report highlighting the ways its ecosystem of products and services are impacting human health, from helping users keep track of their own personal health to supporting medical research and care.

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"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, and by the ways third-party developers, institutions, and organizations are using Apple technology to advance health and science," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "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."
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The 59-page document is split into two main sections, with the first one focused on empowering users with convenient access to their own health data while delivering health and fitness features to help maintain or improve their health. Apple outlines its commitment to privacy with secure storage of health data, the Apple Watch's role in health monitoring and as a health and fitness companion, and the HealthKit framework that opens up the ecosystem to third-party apps.

With the release of iOS 16 and watchOS 9 later this year, there will be even more health-related features available to users, including medication tracking, AFib History, and sleep stage tracking.

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The second section of the report examines how Apple's health initiative integrates with the medical community, including features like ResearchKit and the Apple Research app. Other aspects include how Apple supports physician-patient relationships with technology and data and how it helps health organizations and insurance companies promote healthy lifestyles with Apple Watch.

The report concludes with an Extensions and Spotlights section that highlights a number of examples of developers and organizations that are leveraging Apple's health-related features and services to drive innovation.

Article Link: Apple Highlights Its Growing Role in Promoting Personal Health and Supporting the Medical Community
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/20/apple-health-report-2022/
Apple is doing a fantastic job with integrating technology and health

I hope that Apple continues to add and make improvements to both the Apple Watch and HealthKit

There have been rumors that the upcoming AirPods Pro, which may be released this fall, will have additional health capabilities so I’m really looking forward to the new AirPods Pro being released

I currently am using an Apple Watch series 7 but if Apple adds additional health capabilities to this year’s Apple Watch, I will definitely be upgrading to the series 8
 
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Health was the only set of features that I never used on Apple Watch before I gave it up. I would like Apple to make a version without the heart monitor which will make the watch significantly lighter and probably 1/4 thinner, without the half sphere protruding under the watch and sticking at your wrist.
 
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Sensor technology is improving very fast, just that regulatory requirements are there for a reason and we will not see some technologies any time soon (eg continuous glucose monitoring).
And having the data available in 1 place is also a huge improvement, many attempts in the past have miserably failed
 
antiprotest said:
Health was the only set of features that I never used on Apple Watch before I gave it up. I would like Apple to make a version without the heart monitor which will make the watch significantly lighter and probably 1/4 thinner, without the half sphere protruding under the watch and sticking at your wrist.
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Maybe a plain old mechanical watch would suit you better
 
jz0309 said:
Maybe a plain old mechanical watch would suit you better
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It's silly to say that, because I used almost all the other features. Calls (with cell plan so I didn't always bring my phone), several message apps, games, mail, music, podcast, weather, calendar, food ordering, to control several home devices, shazam, navigation, alarm, reminders, audiobooks...all this just the top of my head.

To say that I should use a mechanical watch just because I don't use health features and want the watch to do without the extra hardware? Come on. If you want to sling that tiresome sarcastic reaction toward somebody, I'm not the target.
 
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antiprotest said:
It's silly to say that, because I used almost all the other features. Calls (with cell plan so I didn't always bring my phone), several message apps, games, mail, music, podcast, weather, calendar, food ordering, to control several home devices, shazam, navigation, alarm, reminders, audiobooks...all this just the top of my head.

To say that I should use a mechanical watch just because I don't use health features and want the watch to do without the extra hardware? Come on. If you want to sling that tiresome sarcastic reaction toward somebody, I'm not the target.
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I understand where you're coming from but I don't think Apple will ever release a watch without HR sensor, it's too big of a headline feature. Ever since the very first one almost flopped from leaning way too hard into fashion, they've made it essentially a health device that also does some other stuff (from a marketing perspective.)
 
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JustinCymbal said:
Apple is doing a fantastic job with integrating technology and health

I hope that Apple continues to add and make improvements to both the Apple Watch and HealthKit

There have been rumors that the upcoming AirPods Pro, which may be released this fall, will have additional health capabilities so I’m really looking forward to the new AirPods Pro being released

I currently am using an Apple Watch series 7 but if Apple adds additional health capabilities to this year’s Apple Watch, I will definitely be upgrading to the series 8
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This reads like an apple marketing manager wrote it.
 
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The AW does a lot of things well and some ... needs help.
IMO it tries to do too much across to broad of an arena.
Biggest areas of concern to me:
- how much (for health) is Apple being slowed down by agencies like the FDA(Fed) and State regulations
- Just how safe / dependable is your health data on the AW
 
dk001 said:
how much (for health) is Apple being slowed down by agencies like the FDA(Fed) and State regulations
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Not sure what you would rather?

From my point of view, better a delay than see poor, unverified products.

(Assuming, of course, that the FDA is doing what it should be doing. Proper assessment based on good science.)
 
Apple still is missing a key component of living a healthy lifestyle- Nutrition. Once you can track your food habits in the fitness app and all calories and nutrients are linked to your fitness, then the circle will be complete. When is this going to happen.
 
The combination of Apple's commitment to health and the new capabilities of U1 integration with third-party accessories in iOS 16 sound tremendously promising. The ultra-precise geometrical tracking of U1 will allow unprecedented information of micro-movements and micro-accelerations during walking, running, and other movements. Intelligent software will "know" how we are moving, providing feedback and corrections. U1 trackers could also be used for games, but I'm more interested in what can be understood biomechanically through precise tracking of our movement.
 
polyphenol said:
Not sure what you would rather?

From my point of view, better a delay than see poor, unverified products.

(Assuming, of course, that the FDA is doing what it should be doing. Proper assessment based on good science.)
Click to expand...

One of the big challenges is having hardware and/or software that can medically measure or identify a condition and getting FDA approval. Building it into a watch is new territory and no easy task. Programs like that are measured in years while Apple's developments are on a far shorter cycle. No easy thing.
 
dk001 said:
The AW does a lot of things well and some ... needs help.
IMO it tries to do too much across to broad of an arena.
Biggest areas of concern to me:
- how much (for health) is Apple being slowed down by agencies like the FDA(Fed) and State regulations
- Just how safe / dependable is your health data on the AW
Click to expand...
As a retired physician, I've been pretty impressed by the quality of the information I get from my AW S7. The FDA and other regulators slow everyone down, so that's a given. The health data is "safe" in the fact that you can use it as a trigger to get more sophisticated testing in case your AW indicates something is wrong. If the glucose monitoring function comes to fruition and is reasonably accurate, that will be a game changer for the many people that suffer from diabetes (and the many that don't even realize they have it).
 
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flofixer said:
The health data is "safe" in the fact that you can use it as a trigger to get more sophisticated testing in case your AW indicates something is wrong.
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Its primary unsafe-ness seems to come from its potential to fail to trigger anything.

For example, you think it will notice some heart rhythm oddity and rely on it. But if it doesn't, you carry on unaware and suffer.
 
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dantracht said:
Since getting an AW, I’ve lost 120 pounds, gave up meat, and am the healthiest I’ve been in 30 years.

I’d like to think the AW played a significant role in that.
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really cool. You did the work but I'm curious what motivation you got from the AW? Just consistently closing rings and following their challenges?
 
CheffyDude said:
Apple still is missing a key component of living a healthy lifestyle- Nutrition. Once you can track your food habits in the fitness app and all calories and nutrients are linked to your fitness, then the circle will be complete. When is this going to happen.
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Not a bad idea. All the existing apps are a PITA with their various quality/accuracy of data and need to make it social, add more subscriptions, etc.
 
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