A Doctor Is Skeptical About Apple’s HealthKit. Here’s Why.

Apple recently previewed a new framework called HealthKit that will be included in their next mobile operating system called iOS 8....I know that this is only a preview, and they were only able to scratch the surface at this point. But, to be honest, even though the tech press is very excited about this, I am not impressed. Why?

Has Apple solved the patient privacy problem? I’ve talked with many tech people about the challenges of making an app reach the standards of the strict HIPAA compliance. Not only does Apple want to hold health information on the phone, but also potentially have two way health information exchange with institutions like Mayo Clinic and Epic hospitals...

Epic integration. I won’t even rant about my hospital not having access to Epic because we’re too small of a hospital, which means my patients won’t have this HealthKit integration. I’ve seen the Epic system, and it is a lot of information even for a 13-15 inch laptop screen. Will typical patient portal information be available on HealthKit? Will patients be able to transmit health information from HealthKit to the Epic hospital system? Will patients even use HealthKit for this purpose?

Integration of the mythical iWatch. For months now, everyone from the tech press to the tech savvy medical providers have been saying that a wearable device like an iWatch is inevitable. Would an iWatch be helpful for health? An iWatch cannot take a blood sugar, a pulse, or a blood pressure. Yes, it can count your steps, but there are already a variety of devices that already do that...