July 20, 2022
UPDATE
How Apple empowers people with their health information
A new report shares ways Apple products are helping users, developers, and healthcare organizations advance personal health, research, and care.
Today, Apple shared a new report that provides an overview of the ways in which Apple products are empowering people to be at the center of their well-being and act as a protector. smart for their health and safety. Users, developers, healthcare organizations, and healthcare organizations around the world are using Apple devices, features, and APIs to break down barriers between people and their health information. attention to privacy.
Apple’s efforts to promote wellness fall mainly into two categories, detailed in the two respective sections of the report. The first section describes Apple’s focus on personal health and fitness features on Apple Watch and iPhone, providing actionable, science-based insights and helping protect health and wellness. user safety. The second part shares Apple’s work with the medical community to support research and care. Both sections – along with the Extensions and Spotlight sections at the bottom of the report – include many examples of third-party developers, healthcare, and organizations that innovate with Apple technology.
“We strongly believe that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes and encouraging people to live healthier days, and we are excited about the many ways that users are benefit from our health and fitness features as well as third-party developers, said Jeff Williams, Apple’s CEO. “Our vision for the future is to continue to create science-based technology that empowers people with even more information and acts as a smart custodian of their health, so that they no longer passengers on their own wellness journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat with meaningful and actionable insights.”
Empowering users in their personal wellness journey
Since releasing the Health app in 2014 and the Apple Watch in 2015, Apple has introduced a host of innovative health and fitness features, with the goal of providing users with easy-to-understand insights. , meaning they can be empowered to live a healthier life. The report outlines four pillars of Apple’s health and fitness features: 1) providing users with a central and secure place to store and view their health data in the Health app, 2 ) provides features that allow Apple Watch to act as a smart guardian for users’ health, 3) provides features that help users improve their daily health and fitness for better results. better health outcomes and 4) leverage innovative third-party health and fitness apps with developer tools.
With the release of iOS 16 and watchOS 9 this fall, Apple Watch and iPhone will deliver features focused on 17 health and fitness areas, from heart health and sleep to mobility and fitness. women’s health, etc. Over the years, customers of all ages have shared how these health and fitness features, in other words, have changed their lives. Some share their stories in the report, including clients who discovered a serious heart condition, received emergency help after a fall, or dramatically improved their health through activity. daily.
Users can now store more than 150 different types of health data from Apple Watch, iPhone, and connected third-party apps and devices in one central view in the Health app, in addition to Health record data is available from connected organizations in the US, UK, and Canada. There are now tens of thousands of apps on the App Store that use the HealthKit API, which allows developers to combine data that users choose to share from the Health app to deliver innovative health and fitness experiences, with strict privacy and data security protocols. The report highlights examples of globally popular HealthKit-enabled apps such as Nike Run Club, Calm, and WeightWatchers, along with a growing number of HealthKit-enabled apps – including Qardio heart health and Withings Health Mate – uses connected accessories to allow users to monitor and track more aspects of their health.
Supporting the Health Ecosystem by Partnering with the Health Community
Apple believes that the healthiest innovations are only possible through direct collaboration with the medical community, and the report describes four categories of this partnership: 1) building tools for enable researchers to make new scientific discoveries, 2) help strengthen physician-patient relationships with meaningful data, 3) collaborate with health organizations to promote lifestyles health on a large scale, and 4) support public health and government initiatives.
The ResearchKit framework offers researchers the opportunity to recruit study participants from a large pool of iPhone and Apple Watch users, and for participants to choose to share health data to help develop science. learn. Through the Research app, Apple has partnered with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the American Heart Association, the University of Michigan, and the American Heart Association. World Health Organization to offer users across the United States the opportunity to participate in the first three studies of its kind: the Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Heart and Motion Study, and Apple Hearing Research. Preliminary information from the studies that appear in the report, as well as information about other studies Apple has supported, such as the Heart Failure Study with the University Health Network and the Technical Mental Health Research number with UCLA.
Health records on iPhone in the Health app, along with third-party apps and devices developed using Apple’s developer tools, help strengthen the physician relationship and patients with meaningful data. Health Records are now available to patients at over 800 institutions across more than 12,000 locations, making it easy for patients to view their available medical data from multiple providers in the Health app whenever they need it. choose. Research has shown that connecting patients to their care team remotely leads to better outcomes with the Corrie Health app, home UVA wellness program, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs for Veterans Affairs. warriors borrow Apple devices to connect them to their VA healthcare services. Care teams are better able to help chronic illness patients at Ochsner Health System and NHS Sunderland, and remote monitoring is reducing the cost and length of a child’s intensive care hospital stay. newborns at Odense University Hospital and University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, where premature infants can go home to their parents but stay connected to remote care teams.
Medical organizations and companies around the world – including Paceline in the US; Vitality Active Rewards in the US, UK, South Africa and Australia; and LumiHealth in Singapore – have partnered with Apple to integrate Apple Watch into their wellness plans. There are now 55 programs running in 17 countries with more than a million users participating in the Apple Watch incentive program. These programs have been successful in increasing participants’ physical activity levels and implementing health behaviors, such as moving toward more regular sleep patterns, focusing on mindfulness, and change. healthier food choices.
Finally, the report highlights Apple’s partnerships with clinicians and local governments on unique ways to support their important work promoting public health, including building building apps and features during the COVID-19 health crisis.
Based on science and designed around privacy
All of Apple’s health and fitness features have been developed with two overarching principles in mind:
- Rigorous scientific validation process: Apple’s in-house clinicians are deeply involved in the product development process and work hand-in-hand with product engineers and designers. This, combined with collaboration with experts from leading research institutions, ensures that products and features are scientifically sound and user-friendly.
- Privacy at the Center: Privacy is a core value of Apple, and data privacy is crucial for sensitive health data. Apple’s health and fitness features put user privacy at the center and provide users with protections, including transparency and control. When iPhone is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all health and fitness data in the Health app – not Health ID – is encrypted and all health data is synced encrypted with iCloud are encrypted both in transit and on Apple’s servers. And if a user has a recent version of watchOS and iOS with default two-factor authentication and a passcode, their health and activity data will be stored in a way that cannot be read by Apple. Health app data is never shared with any third parties without the explicit permission of the user and if the user decides to share their health data, the Health app provides gives users granular control over the types of data they share and with whom they share it. They can review and manage permissions at any time.
Tap Contacts
Clare Varellas
Apple
cvarellas@apple.com
(408) 862-7311
Zaina Khachadorian
Apple
zkhachadourian@apple.com
(408) 862-4327
Apple Media Helpline
media.help@apple.com
(408) 974-2042
