Opinion: Nokia hasn’t been healthy for Withings, Apple should consider HealthKit hardware

- Feb. 19th 2018 9:03 am PT

Nokia’s ownership of Withings has been incredibly messy. After buying Withings in mid-2016, Nokia sued Apple over unrelated patents which resulted in Withings digital health products being pulled from the Apple Store.

While that dispute has since been resolved, Nokia now says it is reviewing its digital health business altogether. The result could be positive or negative for Withings customers depending on where ownership lands.

As a Withings customer myself, my hope is that Apple buys the digital health product business from Nokia — if only to do the bare minimum to maintain hardware that works with Apple HealthKit.

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Apple hires YouTube doctor who has talked of ‘prescribing’ Watch apps to patients

Ben Lovejoy

- Sep. 20th 2016 4:46 am PT

@benlovejoy

HealthKit

Apple has hired a Canadian doctor from a Toronto teaching hospital for an unspecified role. Dr Mike Evans runs what he calls a ‘mini med school’ YouTube channel known as DocMikeEvans, which aims to better educate the public about health matters.

“I’m very excited for Dr. Mike that he will be able to use his multiple talents to impact an even bigger worldwide audience,” said Dr. Arthur S. Slutsky, vice-president of research at St. Michael’s Hospital. “I’m looking forward to seeing his new innovations and having St. Mike’s collaborate with him in his new role.”

“Dr. Mike” isn’t allowed to say much about his new role, other than that he will be working on health-care innovation worldwide.

One reason Apple would be interested in him is no secret, however …

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Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip

Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller joins DNA sequencing company Illumina’s board

Jordan Kahn - Jul. 28th 2016 6:39 am PT

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller is joining Illumina’s board of directors, a company that provides technologies related to DNA sequencing for healthcare research among other services.

Hands-on: Apple brings HL7 CCD health records to HealthKit in iOS 10

Greg Barbosa

- Jun. 15th 2016 12:04 pm PT

@gregbarbosa

iOS iOS 10 Apps Developers HealthKit

Each since it was released, Apple has made noticeable strides to improve the built-in Health app. It launched on iOS 8 where we saw Apple promote HealthKit enabled apps, then with iOS 9 we saw the expansion to new health data points. iOS 10 takes Health a step further by now allowing users to store their health records directly in the app using the Health Level 7 Continuity of Care Document (HL7 CCD) standard. No longer having to track paperwork or use CDs, these health records will be tracked directly in-app with the ability to be imported from Mail, Safari, and other applications.

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Apple now collecting some ResearchKit data from users for its own research

Jordan Kahn

- Mar. 31st 2016 12:03 pm PT

@JordanKahn

Apps & Updates iPad AAPL Company iPhone Apple Apps

Apple has started collecting some of the research data that users submit through apps using the company’s ResearchKit platform for the first time.

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Boston Children’s Hospital wants your help with a ResearchKit project to measure body temps

Ben Lovejoy - Mar. 30th 2016 5:22 am PT

While most people know that normal body temperature is 98.6F/37C, your actual temperature can vary quite a bit during the course of a day, and that can make diagnosing fevers trickier than it might seem. To help get more accurate baseline data, the Boston Children’s Hospital wants your help in logging temperature data across a day.

Fever is one of the most common signs of illness and causes anxiety to many. Doctors still struggle with determining the cause of a fever. In addition, “normal” and “febrile” temperatures vary between individuals.

Better understandings of how body temperature varies between individuals and identification of disease fever patterns (“feverprints”) could allow doctors to make faster, more accurate diagnoses.

The Feverprints app uses the ResearchKit framework to collect the data. The app of course has no way to measure your temperature, so you’ll need to do that manually, though there are inexpensive Bluetooth thermometers available to make the job a little easier.

Apple recently launched a new CareKit framework, which provides patients with health data they can share with their physicians and carers.

Via Gizmodo