Apple explains how it approaches health and fitness features on Watch, iPhone – Times of India

The importance of Health app

Apple released the Health app first in 2014 and a year later it arrived on the Apple Watch. The idea behind it was to keep all the health and fitness features under one roof and gives users an insight to live a healthier life. Users can now store over 150 different types of health data from Apple Watch, iPhone, and connected third-party apps and devices in the Health app. In countries like UK, US and Canada, users can add health records from certain medical institutions.
While the tag of keeping of its ecosystem ‘closed’ can be justified t to a certain extent, with the Health app Apple has been far more open. Apple says that there are now tens of thousands of apps on the App Store that use the HealthKit API, which allows developers to incorporate data users choose to share from the Health app to offer innovative health and fitness experiences. Calm, Nike Run Club are some of the prime examples. Apple also allows users to link to track and monitor even more aspects of their health. With iOS 16 and watchOS 9 this fall, Apple Watch and iPhone will offer features that focus on 17 areas of health and fitness, from heart health to sleep, women’s health, mobility, and more.

Apple and the medical community

Apple says that the “strongest health innovations are possible only through direct collaboration with the medical community.” Throughout the year, Apple conducts research studies with participants who use iPhone and Apple Watch. There are currently 55 programs running in 17 countries with over a million users taking part in an incentive program leveraging Apple Watch.
Research studies have been conducted in collaboration with Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the American Heart Association, and the University of Michigan and World Health Organisation.
Here as well the Health app plays an important role. There’s a feature called Health Records in the Health app that collates all the data. Health Records is now available to patients at over 800 institutions across over 12,000 locations, making it easy for patients to see their available medical data from multiple providers in the Health app whenever they choose.