Apple has decided to disable one of the features of the Health application, specifically the blood glucose tracking capability, until it can issue a fix for issues reported by users in the UK and Australia, CNET reported tonight. The feature will apparently be removed through an incoming software update (perhaps iOS 8.1, or possibly 8.0.3) while the company prepares a patch to remedy the problem. Apple has also provided a longer explanation on its support website:
The Health app lets you manually enter and view blood glucose values in mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter). This unit of measurement is used by a number of countries, while some other countries use mmol/L (millimoles per liter).
HealthKit supports both units of measurement. However, if you measure your blood glucose using a device that displays mmol/L, those values can’t be manually entered or displayed in the Health app with that unit of measurement.
To prevent confusion in countries where mmol/L is commonly used, we’ll soon release a software update that will temporarily remove the ability to manually enter and view blood glucose values in the Health app while we work on an update to support both units of measurement.
If you have previously entered values manually in the Health app, you’ll no longer see this data in the Health app after the update. However, your data won’t be deleted, and other apps with permission to read health data will still have access to blood glucose values that you previously entered.
Third-party apps will continue to be able to support both units of measurement and can continue to use HealthKit APIs to store blood glucose data.
While it’s true that the HealthKit framework supports measurement standards for both the United States and abroad, a bug that exists in the current version prevents users from manually entering or viewing blood glucose levels using anything other than United States measurements (mg/dL, or milligrams per deciliter) within the actual Health application. The UK and Australian standard is the millimole per litre (mmol/L).
Apple issued a statement on the problem, saying:
“To prevent confusion in countries where mmol/L is commonly used, we’ll soon release a software update that will temporarily remove the ability to manually enter and view blood glucose values in the Health app while we work on an update to support both units of measurement,” said an Apple spokesperson.
Apple also informed CNET that following the update, users will no longer be able to see blood glucose levels in the Health app, but the data will not be deleted permanently. Once the fix has been released, the old data will appear in the correct format. Third-party apps will still be able to input and access this data even after the update removes it from the main Health app, providing users with a way to view this critical information in the meantime.
This isn’t the first time Apple has experienced a major issue with the Health software. When iOS 8 initially launched to the public, all third-party apps were suddenly barred from using the HealthKit framework while an issue was investigated. The 8.0.1 update re-enabled the capability, but introduced a whole separate set of issues.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Good move. The treatment required for 25mmol/L and 25mg/dL glucose levels is exactly the opposite. Both are an emergency situation – dosing insulin to someone with 25mL/dL glucose would kill.
Confusion is easy as thinking is difficult when glucose is out of range. While Type 2 diabetics are more tolerant over insulin overdoses, Type 1 diabetics are not.
I can’t believe after grown so large Apple still is thinking ‘USA only’. One would think they start to think and work globally/internationally.
That’s a gross exaggeration. iOS supports so many locales (languages, calendars, units, etc.) already and encourages and helps developers actively with internationalisation (such as embedded unit converters, auto layout …). They even say a day isn’t necessarily 24 hours and a week isn’t necessarily 7 days—they want you to be that flexible in your programming.
Apple forgot one unit—you can’t say “they [should] start to think and work globally”. If there is an issue, it’s probably that the HealthKit software division QA failed here (they hired people for that, right?), with hopefully no disastrous events for somebody.
I think it’s great that Apple shows responsibility by immediately disabling (part of) HealthKit when it finds problems. Every bug in that framework may be serious and they clearly get it.
How hard would it be to fix immediately?
I’m no fancy computer scientist but I’m pretty sure converting units of measurements is possible with a smartphone in 2014.
One more QA failure :(
I’m the first one to criticise Apple when they cock up, but this is no “measurementgate”.
Not a single developer flagged this up during beta?
It’s tiresome when every single issue with every single Apple product is characterised as ‘major’.
This is a very small matter, easily fixed. It’s surprising nobody in the beta testing noted it, my guess is that this means all beta testing was done in the US.
It’s the same problem with nearly every bit of health info on US web sites – the use of US only units and the assumption that no-one else uses different units.
If this were US units then they wouldn’t be using mg, nor dL.
That’s sheer nonsense. The SI units are official units of measurement in the US, though so are the archaic imperial units. However, there are many things measured that are NOT measured in any imperial units. Blood Glucose happens to be one of those things, as blood glucose was not measured in the 18th century when the imperial units were adopted in the US. The official US measurement for blood glucose therefore is mg/dL.
The use of the word major to describe this little problem is ridiculous. Anything to get clicks. How does this little issue get a major labeled applied to it. I get so sick of every single little issue Apple has turned into some big giant blown out of proportion major disaster. Crap, Google might as well scrap Android. It’s full of nothing but MAJOR issues according to the why you classify stuff.
Because confusing 25mmol/L and 25mg/dL could KILL. That’s why there’s been so many recalls of glucose meters that have switchable units, now they are locked permanently.
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ArchiveRecalls/2005/ucm111820.htm
Because confusing 25mmol/L and 25mg/dL could quickly lead to the DEATH. That’s why there’s been so many recalls of glucose meters that have switchable units, now they are locked permanently.
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ArchiveRecalls/2005/ucm111820.htm
Ok, first get your facts straight. mg (milligrams) and dL (deciliters) are international standards, covered in SI, the same stander that covers the mole unit.
A bug is a bug, but this isn’t a “US thing”
And if you want to know why using moles for the lay person is a bad idea to begin with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)
Healthkit app has been a total joke on my phone. Crashes, freezes, slow performance, much like iOS8.
and still lacking support of iPads with HealthKit !