AppleInsider Staff
Two leading U.S. medical records firms, Athenahealth and Cerner, are said to be working with Apple on the development and deployment of apps integrated with the iOS 8 HealthKit framework.
Representatives from both medical records providers confirmed the partnership with Apple, saying they are working toward integrated HealthKit solutions, Reuters reports.
According to the publication, Athenahealth and Cerner are looking to roll out systems capable of remotely monitoring patients using connected biometric measurement devices tied together with HealthKit. Medical practitioners would then be able to access the information to offer diagnoses and appropriate care.
With HealthKit, Athenahealth is planning to treat patients with chronic conditions, while Cerner described a more holistic approach in which "care teams" would have access to general medical records.
Apple's HealthKit framework allows users, in this case doctors, to gather data from supported sensors and monitors, including those on board an iPhone. Storing pertinent data in a centralized location allows for quick and easy access, something that current digital medical records systems lack.
The HealthKit framework got off to a rocky start when iOS 8 went public on Wednesday, as an unknown bug prompted Apple to disable apps integrating with system. Developers were reportedly asked to resubmit their wares without HealthKit extensions activated. Apple later confirmed the issue and promised a fix by the end of September.
Malcolm Owen
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5 Comments
Ironic that Athenahealth is working with Apple, and yet Athena has been unable to gets its web based electronic medical record system to be compatible with iOS8 at the time of this article. They just need to update the allowed user agent to allow IOS 8's Safari but have so far been unable to do this.
Will be interesting to see how HealthKit is adopted. I can see it being implemented readily by fitness Apps but am intrigued as to how it will be implemented for medical records. In Australia we have a government managed eHealth record that can keep track of medical information including medical history, prescriptions & known allergies etc... I know initially there was some concern around having that sort of data stored in the cloud and I personally only recently signed up. Would be interesting to see how much further a program like that can be taken when incorporating data from health tracking apps/devices. Will also be interesting to see how readily its adopted and how big of an impact privacy concerns will have on the uptake.
When support for these new tentpole platforms mature (healthkit/homekit/watchkit/extensions) iOS will be untouchable as a platform. It will have all the traditional integration/security/reliability/privacy/ecosystem/appstore strengths, as well as extremely powerful yet regulated extensibility.
[quote name="Slurpy" url="/t/182389/medical-records-firms-athenahealth-and-cerner-reportedly-working-on-healthkit-integration#post_2601835"]When support for these new tentpole platforms mature (healthkit/homekit/watchkit/extensions) iOS will be untouchable as a platform. It will have all the traditional integration/security/reliability/privacy/ecosystem/appstore strengths, as well as extremely powerful yet regulated extensibility. [/quote] I wonder if the IBM alliance also plays into this. I would think back end suppliers / programmers for such a potentially gigantic undertaking could be a perfect role for IBM.
Am I the only one who can't see "Healthkit" without seeing "Heathkit"?
Not entirely a bad thing as it brings back many warm and fuzzy memories.