iOS 8, The Next Healthcare Platform?

Earlier this month, the business community began to realize the upcoming importance of the new features that will be included in iOS 8, namely the new Health app for iPhone. On June 4th, Shekhar Sharad said in his title:

Apple will redefine Healthcare & make Billions - here is how...

and it is easy to see why. With the rising costs of healthcare, the healthcare industry is expected to rise to $162 billion in 2015 (Source). That's a lot of profit to be gained, and Apple thinks it has the solution.

Device-Data Integration and Analysis

With the new HealthKit interface for application developers, Apple is encouraging us to integrate gathered device data to it's app. Certainly, the HealthKit will provide features for us developers to store, aggregate, and analyze gathered health data, but Apple will reap the benefit in device sales, platform, and mobility. It's a win-win for us, but more of a little-win for developers and a enormous-win for Apple brand.

Already, there are apps and devices that track our steps, what we eat, how well and for how long we sleep, but the data is disjointed. The real leader in the patient-data-mining era that is coming will be the organization that is able to take in data from various devices and perform analysis on what might happen or what possible health issues could be on the horizon. Much like science fiction entertainment, we might soon see machines that are alerting us to to potential health issues before the happen. Apple will be in a position to aggregate a vast amount of device data from software and hardware solutions that are tracking stats on us humans.

The Potential Benefits, The Potential Harm

You can hear the security analysts are already beating their privacy war drums; the concern is that even after removing explicitly identifying data, our health history itself is identifying, or application developers might not de-identify enough. If we remove all the information about you in the data, who else do you know that eats a burger everyday for lunch between 12:30 PM and 1:00 PM, has had an appendectomy at 37, and a family history of prostate cancer? The larger the amount of data aggregated, the more the data can be associated with us individually.

The other side of the discussion says that the technology can really improve the lives of individuals, maybe even save or prolong our lives. I will be the first to tell you, if we put the data into the HealthKit, that data is going to be sold to someone, somewhere, but there is a side to me that wonders, "What if we had this massive database of patient history, life events and conditions? What patterns in health and wellness would we find if we let health researchers analyze and draw conclusions based on the largest data set possible?" The scientist in me starts screaming, "what a benefit to mankind that kind of information could be!" while the other me is screaming, "Unplug!"

Notification: Eat More Broccoli and Walk 30 Minutes a Day for a Happier, Healthier You!

Integrated health devices and applications are coming; soon our futures could be tied to devices that are constantly monitoring us and keeping aware of how we can be benefiting ourselves, and even inferring suggestions based on our medical and personal histories. Apple's upcoming Health app for iOS 8 is a step toward that future.