Apple has reportedly considered launching its own primary care service, which would include health monitoring as part of a subscription program—but employees put a stop to these plans over data integrity concerns, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple has spent years trying to push healthcare, including launching its own clinics and employing doctors – but these plans have mostly stalled due to various reasons.
- Apple health apps: The idea came up when Apple was trying to figure out how the amounts of data collected from Watch users could be used to improve health care. It was decided to offer its own medical service, which “link data generated by Apple devices with virtual and personal care by Apple doctors,” according to the WSJ. Apple would offer not only basic services, but also personalized health programs on a subscription basis.
- Health Habit: One of the initiatives was supposedly an app called Health Habit that connected employees with clinicians via chat and encouraged them to set health goals. However, the app reportedly struggled with low enrollment and questions over data integrity in the area of hypertension. In a 2019 meeting, a manager raised concerns about the data to Desai, which contributed to the manager’s departure several weeks later.
- Apple Park: Apple reportedly took over a health clinic near Apple Park and hired Stanford University’s Dr. Sumbul Desai to manage the project. It tested the service to start with on its own employees, building a team that included clinicians, engineers, and product designers. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that health will be one of Apple’s greatest contributions to humanity.
- Accelerate health care: Apple has been living up to its strategy of accelerating its other healthcare initiatives that hinge on its devices/hardware. Apple Watch has more advanced health features than ever before. It just announced that the next iteration will include new, and highly coveted body temperature and blood glucose sensors.
- Apple Healthcare innovation: Apple has been developing its Health app to integrate with electronic health records (EHRs) —and it’s already partnered with multiple health systems. The Health app is available on all iPhones and securely collects and tracks health data like heart rate, activity levels, lab results, sleeping patterns, and menstrual cycles.
