AppleInsider Staff
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.
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16 Comments
[@]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.
[quote name="SolipsismX" url="/t/182158/apple-partner-mayo-clinic-to-reportedly-demo-healthkit-integration-at-media-event#post_2592205"][@]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.[/quote] Makes sense.
Unless I can see the test results and X ray/CT/MRI image on my iPhone, or my doctor can access them via my phone, the medical world haven't changed. 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.
[quote name="Cheesehead Dave" url="/t/182158/apple-partner-mayo-clinic-to-reportedly-demo-healthkit-integration-at-media-event/0_100#post_2592228"]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. [/quote] Or a popup hospital for all the fat people having heart attacks after trying out the fitness features of the iWatch.