Apple's Increasing Focus on Health Seen in Recent Hiring Trends, New Board Member

[DaveN]

Bottom line is that between Apple knocking it out of the park with in-house processor designs and packing a lot of health functionality into their watch, they have a growing lead in huge markets.

 

[BluePhilG]

Now if only I could access all that health data from my computer (aka Mac)...

 

[Brien]

Let Apple disrupt EMRs. Please.

 

[svish]

Apple watch is all about health. With the things apple is working on, cannot imagine what all new sensors will be present in apple watch a couple of years from now

 

[pauloregan]

The rumour is SnakeOilKit is being worked on.

 

[KindJamz]

AW is clearly not a medical device and imho will never become one unless they decide to create a “medical edition” that then will be priced accordingly…
I have to find that article again, it was somewhat disheartening to read that healthcare providers complain about patients “worrying too much” about the data they get from their devices… while some are getting it, I think the problem is the Pharma side and doctors still are quick to prescribe meds when not really needed, in the US that is. So a big shift in mindset along with $$$ needs to occur…

Clearly you don’t work in Healthcare. What is your saying the ideal. It’s never that. Ever!!!!!

People are now run by emotional responses and not facts. They complain because the staff isn’t coddling them. Only someone who works in healthcare will understand.

I’ve had patients ask me to hold their member when they had to leave a urine specimen. Lol.

 

[wigby]

No, no, and just no.

HealthKit is not a beta. It's not "early access". It's a personal database of healthcare related data. And it's really good if you just want to track your weight on a day to day basis, when you exercise, or the like. The problem is that taking that data and using it as clinical notes or a medical record is super problematic. It doesn't matter if the data is as benign as your weight or as complex as calorie intake, it's not useful medical data, and getting high resolution data out of healthKit and trusting it is impossible.

And until we get medical grade devices that plug into HealthKit - which means a medical grade device that syncs with iOS - it will forever remain impossible.

Sorry I wasn't being clear enough. I was mostly referring to Apple's ongoing health studies and how they access HealthKit data but I never said the data on an individual basis should be used to diagnose individual patients. As a large scale study, the data collected from 100 million Apple Watches is invaluable to future healthcare models and practices. Those models would then trickle down to educate Apple, physicians and future medicine so that one day consumer devices could extract useful medical data.

 

[supercoolmanchu]

?

Maybe Cook didn't see this?

Johnson & Johnson CEO testified Baby Powder was safe 13 days before FDA bombshell

Facing off against a plaintiff’s lawyer for the first time about Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, the company’s Chief Executive Alex Gorsky earlier this month insisted that the company’s iconic brand was safe.

www.reuters.com

Then again, Gorsky would fit in nicely at Apple. He's good a lying. He'd toe the company line by telling us things such as allowing us to repair our Apple health device (right to repair) would be dangerous, like sideloading

Agreed. Though I’m not yet there on the side loading thing for iOS, but my faith in Cupertino doing the right thing has mostly been vaporized.

Also should add, having had significant hardware repairs done through Apple, authorized repair centers and unauthorized for some out of warranty computers: the incentive for choosing Apple has always been “service” and them going the extra mile to replace and service beyond the actual damage. That adds value and piece of mind for both buying Apple devices and the quality of the repair work.

Locking down repairs is a ****, middle finger to the customer move. Cupertino is now such a mess of pathetic corporate dog whistling, it’s harder and harder for many to keep the faith in the brand.

Which bring us now to —> Apple is too irresponsible for something as important as your personal health.

Look at how quickly they were to market their contact tracing garbage, and how well that worked (as in a 100% total fail). If anyone had relied on it for a virus with any significant transmission and mortality (like smallpox), they’d all be dead.

Their other recent foray into emergency protective gear, that totally useless cheesy face sheild, was something straight out of the Soviet Union’s 1980’s Chernobyl disaster. “Don’t worry. This WILL protect you, comrade.”

When Apple Watch arrived, the heart censors seemed like a great idea. Now someone would have to be very foolish to not be highly skeptical of any healthish claims*. There’s just no way for most to know if it’s really working for them, and Apple is clearly willing to make wildly irresponsible statements. Fad medicine is bad medicine.

*Both the “blue light” screen color shift and hourly standing alerts, are two other recent features that belong on Apple’s wall of shame. Pseudoscience fads.