Last Autumn the Apple rumour mill went into overdrive (again). This time though, we weren’t speculating about the iPhone 8, pondering what may be coming next for the Apple Watch, or even checking out the latest laptops. No, last fall it was the healthcare industry that looked to be Apple’s next target.
In October 2016, news outlet Politico reported that the tech giant had recently deleted a job listing seeking a lawyer specialising in healthcare data privacy and FDA compliance. Basically, they figured someone had been hired, and that would ultimately mean big changes.
According to Politico’s story, there are significant numbers of employees at Apple with experience in healthcare, medical devices – even medical sensor experts.
We’ve now uncovered some even more exciting news about Apple’s future advances in the healthcare market.
Apple are planning to turn your iPhone into a central point for all of your health and medical information.
What does that mean though?
Imagine this; every visit to your doctor, every lab test result, and every prescription, all available for you to view on your phone, and shared with your doctor at the click of a button. No more logging into clucky GP practice websites or having to call your previous doctor to get them to forward to your records to your new one.
American news giant CNBC recently learned that a secretive team within Apple’s growing health unit has been in talks with developers, hospitals and other industry groups about bringing clinical data, such as detailed lab results and allergy lists, to the iPhone, according to a half-dozen people familiar with the team. And from there, users could choose to share it with third parties, like hospitals and health developers.
Essentially, Apple is planning on revolutionising the healthcare market just as it did with the music industry.
“If Apple is serious about this, it would be a big f—ing deal,” said Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator of Health IT for the Department of Health and Human Services and the founder of a start-up called Aledade.
The problem of clunky, disjointed medical records is an issue that the medical community has been grappling with for years, and we certainly hope that Apple can be the company to change things.
