After a last minute decision by Apple to delay the launch of HealthKit, the first HealthKit compatible apps are finally available.
HealthKit is Apple's new infrastructure that allows health apps within iOS to communicate with each other and share information about a user's health. It also makes use of Apple's own Health app.
With the release of iOS 8.0.2 on Thursday, HealthKit is now up and running, and related apps can be downloaded from the App Store.
The release of iOS 8.0.2 follows Apple's iOS 8.0.1 release, which did not allow a user's smartphone to connect to networks, including WiFi. The release was soon pulled while Apple figured out what went wrong.
The first app to take advantage of HealthKit is called FitPort, which is essentially a "fitness dashboard" and basically organizes all of the user's health related data into an easy to read interface. Metrics include activity, calorie intake, body fat percentage and so on.
FitPort, the first HealthKit enabled app to hit the App Store, is essentially an alternative to Apple's own Health app. However it also gives insight into how user's enable sharing with different health apps, revealing that users have to separately enable read and write capabilities for each health app that they decide to use.
HealthKit could prove to be huge, both for Apple and for the medical industry, which could take advantage of data to better help patients. While it might take a while for doctors and care gives to get used to HealthKit, most medical companies will likely start experimenting with ways to use apps and collected data soon.
In fact, Apple has partnered with a number of companies to be able to better monitor people's health. iHealth Labs is a subsidiary of Chinese medical equipment company Andon Health, which sells wireless blood pressure monitors among other tools. Data about user's blood pressure can be uploaded onto a iPhone or iPad, and devices are currently being used in studies at University of California San Francisco, as well as the VA Medical Center in San Francisco.
iHealth Lab's chief marketing officer says HealthKit will likely be widely adopted and could ultimately help save thousands of lives.
