As Apple continues to approve more Apple Watch apps following the device going up for pre-order late last week, a long list of healthcare companies are showing off apps for the Apple Watch at the HIMSS 2015 conference this week in Chicago.
Inlcuded are apps from HCSC, WebMD, Kaiser Permanente, Dexcom, HealthTap, Vocera and many others, enabling everything from health records for patients to medication reminders and continuous glucose monitoring on the Apple Watch. Head below for a full list of healthcare apps for Apple Watch on show:
“When users open the WebMD Apple Watch app, they’ll see their daily medication schedule and information about whether or not they’ve taken a required dose. They will also be able to read medication instructions, such as whether to take a pill with food, and access additional in-depth information on their iPhone via Handoff.”
Every Body Walk! app from Kaiser Permanente
“The Every Body Walk! app was originally created for smartphones in 2011 to support anyone interested in tracking their activity and taking steps to make healthy behavior change. The app is simple and easy to use, making it a good fit for the Apple Watch format. Consumers can use the app to set fitness goals, track activity and view statistics at a glance through colorful and easy-to-read graphics.”
“HealthTap provides instant access to doctors on call 24/7 from anywhere right from any Apple Watch. The revolutionary HealthTap DocNow App for Apple Watch connects you immediately to a primary care doctor for a video consult, all at the tap of a button. With consults at just $2.99 per minute, affordable healthcare is now available to people who need instantaneous access to doctors.”
Centered app from Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC)
“A holistic approach to stress management by allowing users to track their daily physical activity while providing guidance for mindful meditation exercises to help reduce stress levels and improve overall health.”
cFHR app from Anthem and CareEvolution
“The app is designed to make it convenient and simple for consumers to receive alerts, review new medical information and manage their health care from their wrist. Consumers would be notified of suggested preventive screenings, gaps in disease management and prescription refills, and potential drug interactions – consider it a tap on the wrist reminder”
“The Vocera app for Apple Watch will allow users to rapidly manage life-critical communications by viewing and responding to prioritized calls, alerts, and messages from other care team members, Electronic Health Records (EHR) and clinical systems, including critical lab values and STAT orders.”
Dexcom Follow and Dexcom Share2
Updates to Dexcom’s two mobile apps will allow users of its Continuous Glucose Monitor System to track everything straight from Apple Watch. The apps will not only let users view their own glucose information, but also invite others– parents or caregivers for example– to monitor the data from their own Apple Watch.
“The Medisafe Apple Watch app offers customers an entirely new channel of medication management right from their wrist.”
– Apple Watch Support
– Appointment List
– New Messages
– New Chats
– Notifications for New Patient Arrivals
– Notifications for New Messages
– Notifications for New Chats
– Notifications for New Labs
– Notifications for New eRx Refills
“On the Doximity Apple Watch app, doctors can send and receive messages, get notifications for faxes and manage their colleague invites.”
“Cerner’s newly-released iOS 8 HealtheLife app is designed to make it easier for patients to manage their health from Apple Watch, with push notification reminders to track health data and a display dashboard for tracked metrics.”
“Spire, a small stone-like device that measures breathing to gain insight into state of mind, delivers value to its users through real-time notifications that identify moments of tension, focus and calm. With only a glance, the Apple Watch’s notification capabilities seamlessly provides Spire users with rich feedback and guides them to greater calm and focus throughout the day.”
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Just like the iPhone and iPad, apps like these will make the Apple Watch a success. Imagine this being location aware. As you approach a Walgreens (they support Apple Pay!) it will just tap you to remind you to pick up your medicine. This will be great for the elderly as well as people who leave their phones in their purses. It will also remind you wherever you are to take your medicine at the exact time just by tapping your wrist.
Health/Fitness apps will benefit most from the Apple Watch and vice versa.
I think it will be bigger than this. As Apple Watch will be gaining more health sensors it will be able to monitor your vitals and generate medical history. Imagine, if Watch can alert your physician that a vital you are currently have a prescription for is elevated. The physician then can automatically increase the dose of your prescription that can be picked up at nearest Walgreen’s as you describe.
Imagine when someone steals the data or when, instead of your doctor, it’s your insurance company that gets the data and raises your premiums or drops you from coverage all together.
This is not a magic Utopian future. As a society, we need to be very concerned with responsible implementation of these life changing technologies.
@Jason Shaw: That’s right, let’s forget about how great this technology is and focus on everything can go wrong.
“Steve, what do you think about us having a baby?”
“Do you how many kids died last year from school shootings?!! How many end up junkies or in jail?!! Statistically you, the baby or both of you could die during child birth. What a horrible idea!! I want a divorce, which by the way you should’ve been aware could end this way since almost 50% of marriages end in divorce.”
“So… so, no baby then?”
Back to the topic at hand, I imagine the Apple Watch being an alternative to Life Alert, the popular “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” device. Maybe two double-fingered taps would notify the paramedics as well as forward your medical information and even location in the house to the ambulance driver as well as the on-call ER doctor. This way they could have a bed, proper medication and contact next of kin.
Yes, security is a big issue but Apple shouldn’t not improve the health implications of Apple Watch just because someone might find a way to use it negatively. If that were the case the automobile wouldn’t have been invented because there’s a chance someone would run over another human being with it.
Do you need a hug?
@ Jason Shaw, the Affordable Care Act includes guaranteed issue and community rating, which means what you said insurance companies might do is illegal. Thanks Obamacare!
Jason is right. Having an equal balance and being a voice of restraint and concern doesn’t mean he is morbid or “needs a hug”. Businesses are in fact using Big Data in every way possible to drive profits. He is 100% right that careful implementation and use of this needs to be considered. Congrats Jason for being a voice of caution and recognize it’s limitations.
The rest of you are right that there are valuable benefits also. Just please recognize there is a plus and minus to this level of invasive tracking and reporting. I have ordered my watch also; but yes I am concerned about how this can be used in the future.
This highlights one of my problems with the Apple Watch. It’s a very expensive device, seemingly aimed at overly fastidious, older, rich people with health problems. It bothers me that if I wear it, I will be typecast into this group.
It will soon become a cliche that every old geezer will be walking around with one of these things on their wrist, being told what to do (or not do) by various apps. It’s just a creepy, pathetic image that I don’t want to be associated with.
I think Apple needs to do a lot more to associate the Watch with YOUNG people, not aging fashionistas and the geriatric crowd.
How about nobody cares about your problems with the Apple Watch?
Agreed, stop trolling !
How gallant you are.
So health only matters to old people? Troll.
Actually, not the definition of trolling at all. And as a well-known disagreeable old fart yourself, it’s kind of an odd thing for you to say.
Just wait until it gets the Life Alert App that senses when you fall in the shower and immediately calls your grandson to scoop you out of the tub.
Yes. We can all blame Apple marketing for getting all those frickin’ geezers to place nearly 1 million (allegedly) orders seconds after launch, causing my 12:03AM order to be delayed 4-6 weeks.
Gee, thanks a lot Apple!
I would love to see an app with a Glance for emergencies. In a situation where someone is in need of an emergency transport or are trapped somewhere, they could have quick access to call out to the appropriate people for assistance. When life and death can be differentiated by a mere few seconds, it would be a massive help.
They’d have to design it so it isn’t ridiculously easy to tap by accident though. We don’t want unnecessary calls being made out either.
Great minds think alike! I was thinking about a double-fingered tap or maybe Siri would be easier. During the first Apple Watch keynote they mentioned setting up “scenes” like, “Siri, I’m going to bed” and then lights start dimming, the garage door closes, all the doors auto lock and the temperature is adjusted. A similar “ER Scene” could be set up for Siri.
“SIRI! CALL 911”
“Are you injured?”
“YES. I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP!!”
“Initiating emergency protocol. Please verify with emergency code.”
“99003!!”
“Calling 911, calling Joe (husband), texting Martha (next door neighbor), sending vitals to Dr. Rivers.”
And maybe before this is set up there’s an agreement you have to verify with a special medical help desk (maybe via Apple or your carrier) that any false positives (read: crying wolf) will result in fines including legal action and attorney fees.
There’s also the possibility of Apple Watch sending that same ER alert automatically if it notices your heart rate flatlines.
So much potential.
Your example shows there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“Damn, I´ve fallen and can´t get up but it´s in the middle of the night and my Watch is not on my wrist but charging.”
They need to get the fitness tracking data (in a manageable format and without burden on the clinical staff) into Electronic Health Records (EHR) where it can be of research value. More data silos will not move Big Data forward but only exacerbate the fragmentation problem that currently exists. Additionally, let’s see more validation studies on these devices (apps, watch, et al) before they can send data to an EHR.
Like most wearables, the technology for optimum effectiveness of the Apple Watch may not yet be completely developed. http://killingthebreeze.com/the-apple-watch-is-not-all-its-hyped-up-to-be/
It’s great to have an insight into how this new technology can be used for something so important like our health. An interesting read!