HealthKit, Apple's fitness and health service, is due for medical trials at Duke and Stanford universities.
Apple revealed HealthKit in June this year during the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). HealthKit is still under development and Apple hopes to launch the service with iOS 8 on Sept. 17.
HealthKit users will have the ability to collect and monitor data related to their own fitness with the help of apps like Strava, MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper. All the health and fitness-related information is stored in a central location.
Users can also share the data with their healthcare providers. By giving consent, the service will gather data from several health apps on the iOS 8 device, which can be viewed by a healthcare professional at one place.
Doctors believe that HealthKit will assist doctors to better monitor patients living at home. Moreover, doctors will also have the option to alert patients in case they notice some abnormalities such as increase or decrease in blood sugar levels.
"HealthKit APIs offer developers the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. With your permission, each app can use specific information from other apps to provide a more comprehensive way to manage your health and fitness," per Apple.
Doctors at the Stanford University Hospital reveal that Apple is working closely with them, which will let physicians track the levels of blood sugar for children suffering from diabetes. Researchers at the Duke University are also developing systems that can gather data regarding weight, blood pressure and more for patients suffering from heart diseases or cancer.
The medical trials will be rolled out in the coming weeks and the key objective of the program is to increase the speed and accuracy of reporting data to doctors. The program can be beneficial as doctors will be able to access medical conditions of a person and warn them of any impending medical problem.
Some medical device manufacturers such as Epic and DexCom are also planning to deploy HealthKit service to their devices.
Apple confirms that HealthKit will allow data sharing only once a user gives permission to doctors. However, some market observers believe that the sensitive data may also be potentially abused by unauthorized people.
Apple believes that HealthKit can improve health care and how doctors receive a person's health-related data. Apple is trying to foray into the medical industry with the help of HealthKit. If HealthKit is successful, then Apple may also launch similar services related to healthcare in the near term.
