What you need to know

• Apple is reportedly unlikely to bring the health app to iPad and Mac.
• The Health app is currently only available as an iPhone app.
• Health information including heart rate data and more can be found in the Health app.

Apple is set to announce a raft of new software updates during the WWDC opening keynote on June 6, but while a ton of features will be added and others will be refreshed, one much-wanted feature isn't going to be announced according to a new report.

Writing as part of the weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that those hoping that the Health app will make the jump from iPhone to iPad or Mac will be out of luck.

Currently, the only device that includes the Health app is Apple's iPhone, leaving iPad and Mac owners left to use their phone's small display when checking out potentially lifesaving information, including that regarding their heart rate and more. It has been hoped that Apple will bring the Health app to its other platforms for a number of years but, according to Gurman, that won't happen as part of the WWDC22 announcements.

On the more positive side, the iPhone and Apple Watch's health features should see improvements.

Apple is likely to announce iPadOS 16 and macOS 13 during its event, bringing new features that are reportedly set to include an updated multitasking system on iPad and refreshed Settings app on Mac.

The Health app is one of the best iPhone features of recent years and, alongside Apple Watch's own health tracking and alerting functionality, can very much help to save lives. Here's hoping that the Health app jumps to iPad and Mac in 2023.

Back in 2014, Apple launched iOS 8, and with it came the first iteration of the Health app. Health is a single place to view and manage all of your health data, whether that's from your current Apple Watch or even from third-party apps. The Health app has gone through several significant changes over the course of its lifetime, but it remains as your one-stop shop for all things health-related on your iPhone.

Here's everything you need to know about the Health app on your best iPhone.

Summary view

When you open up the Health app on your iPhone with iOS, the first thing you should see is the Summary view. The Summary is just that — a summary of all of your health data on the device, whether that's from third-party apps and smart health accessories, or even from your best Apple Watch, such as the Apple Watch Series 7.

The Summary basically gives you an overall glance at your health. If you are using an Apple Watch, your Activity Ring data is displayed front and center at the top. Any other health data that is enabled automatically appears here, such as Headphone and Environmental sound levels, Sleep, and more. To make the Health Summary view more tailored for your needs, you'll want to favorite certain data points, but first, you'll need to browse through what is offered.

How to browse through all of your health data

Your iPhone can keep a lot of health data for you. And while there are a lot of categories it can track, you can search for something specific if you want.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the Browse tab at the bottom.
3. Tap the Search bar at the top.

4. Type in the health data you want. Results will appear in real-time as you type.
5. Tap Search on the keyboard to view all results.
6. You could also tap on any Health category to view the data that is available.

How to favorite specific Health data points

If there are certain bits of health data that you want to appear in your Summary view, then you need to add them to your Favorites. Any data that is favorited will show up in your Summary section.

1. Browse your health data using the steps above.
2. Tap a specific health data point that you want.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Favorites.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 for all health points you want in the Summary view.

How to manage Data Sources & Access

Over time, you'll probably have tried out several different health and fitness apps for your Apple Watch, or even more apps on your iPhone or iPad. With so many different apps, there may be some overlap in your health data. Or perhaps you just stopped using something and want to get rid of the data in the Health app. Thankfully, it's easy to manage your Data Sources & Access.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on a health data point that you want to manage.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Data Sources & Access.

4. Tap the toggles for the apps that you want to be able to read data from the Health app.
5. If you want to view all data recorded from an individual app, tap on the app under Data Sources.

How to view all recorded data for a health point

You can also view all of the data that is recorded for a single health point, even if there are multiple apps.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the health data point you want to view data for.
3. Scroll down and tap Show All Data.

If you use multiple apps to record something, such as sleep, you'll see the icon of the app that recorded data and when it did so.

How to view Health Trends

A new feature in iOS 15 are Health Trends. With Trends, you're able to see how a certain metric is progressing over the course of several weeks.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. In the Summary view, scroll down until you see Trends. If there are any recent trends, they'll be displayed front and center.
3. Otherwise, you need to tap View Health Trends to see your trends.

You can also turn on notifications for Health Trends. This allows the Health app to look for trends in certain topics and notify you when there is a change to those points of data.

How to view Highlights

Highlights is another insight into how you're doing overall. Unlike trends, it's less about how you're progressing in a certain area and more about what your overall current health is.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. In the Summary view, scroll down until you see Highlights.
3. If you want to see more highlights for other categories, tap Show All Highlights.

How to share your Health data with others

Another new addition in iOS 15 is the ability to share your health records with other people and even your doctor (if in a supported hospital or network).

While health data is incredibly private and sensitive, it makes sense to share it with certain members in the family, like your significant other. Or, in the case of elderly patients, it helps that relatives know what's going on with their health. And sharing with your doctor makes even more sense, though this may not be available if your doctor's network does not support the feature yet.

Check our guide on how to share health records on iPhone to get started.

Get a grip on your health in a single app

The Health app on iPhone is super useful, as it consolidates all of your health data from multiple sources into one place. It's pretty easy to use and gives you a great overview of your health progression and overall well-being.

Back in 2014, Apple added a little feature to iOS called Medical ID. While it's a relatively small feature on your favorite iPhone, it can be one that ends up saving your life in case of an emergency. But if you don't set it up, well, that could be a fatal mistake.

Whether you're using the best iPhone or not, as long as you have iOS 8 or later, you have access to the Medical ID feature. Here's how to set up and manage your Medical ID and Health Details on iPhone.

How to set up your Medical ID

Your Medical ID can be accessed two ways: through the Health app or through the Settings app.

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap your Apple ID avatar in the upper right corner.
3. Tap Medical ID.

4. Tap Edit.
5. Fill out your personal health details as best you can.
6. Tap Done to save.

1. Launch Settings on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Health.
3. Tap Medical ID.

4. Follow steps 4-6 above.

How to add Emergency Contacts on your Medical ID

In case something ever happens to you, you can trigger the Emergency SOS call. This lets you quickly call emergency services in your locale. If you take the time to set up Emergency Contacts as well on your Medical ID, then these people will get a message saying that you have called emergency services. This message will also include your current location, which would be vital.

1. Follow the steps above to set up your Medical ID.
2. Under Emergency Contacts, add the contact information of the people closest to you.
3. Tap Done to save.

How to set up Emergency Access

Setting up your Medical ID is important because the information that you provide can show up on your Lock Screen in an actual emergency when paramedics and other medical professionals arrive to help you. The information can also be shared during an emergency call as well. These two settings can be what literally saves your life.

1. Follow the steps above to set up your Medical ID.
2. Scroll to the bottom until you see the Emergency Access section.
3. Turn the toggles for Show When Locked and Share During Emergency Call to ON (green).
4. Tap Done to save.

Once these two settings are enabled, your Medical ID information should appear on the Lock Screen when "Emergency" is tapped, and your information is shared on the call.

How to view someone else's Medical ID on iPhone

If you find someone who needs help, you can view their Medical ID on their iPhone. But if they have an Apple Watch, that may be a better option, as first responders usually are trained to look for medical bracelets or necklaces first.

1. On the Lock Screen, get to the passcode entry screen.
2. Tap Emergency in the bottom left corner.
3. Tap Medical ID.

Other options include pressing and holding a volume button together with the side button until the power slider comes up, then tapping Medical ID. If the device still has a Home button, press it five times in a row to bring up that option.

On the best Apple Watch, all you need to do is press and hold the Side button, then slide your finger over the Medical ID option.

A literal life-saving feature

As you can see, getting your Medical ID set up on your current iPhone can literally save your life in an emergency. Of course, we don't want to find ourselves in such an emergency to begin with, but sometimes it just happens, and you'd best be prepared for it. And if you ever encounter someone who is in an emergency themselves, it's good to know how to help them out.

What you need to know

• United Airlines now works with SMART Health Cards.
• Apple's Health app also works with the specification.
• Customers can now share their COVID-19 vaccination record through the Health app with the airline.

If you're traveling on United Airlines and have your COVID-19 vaccination card in the Health app on iPhone, you might not need your physical card anymore.

Spotted by 9to5Mac, United Airlines revealed that customers could now, through their iOS app, link their vaccination card from the Health app to prove their COVID-19 vaccination status with the airline. They have provided instructions on how to share your vaccination card from the Health app to the United Airlines app below:

• Customers with upcoming travel requiring proof of vaccination can visit the Travel-Ready Center on United's iOS app
• Customers can select the option to upload vaccine documentation
• Customers can then click on "Upload" then "Share your SMART Health Card"
• The Apple Health app will automatically open and ask customers for permission to share their verifiable vaccination records with United
• Once confirmed, the vaccination records will automatically be uploaded, verified on United's system and records will be stored until they complete their travels.

With iOS 15, Apple revealed that customers would now be able to store their vaccination card in the Health app for institutions that use the SMART Health Card specification.

While there are plenty of instances where you can store your COVID-19 vaccination card on your iPhone, storing it in the Health app opens up a lot more possibilities on how other apps can integrate with Apple's offering rather than building their own. United Airlines will hopefully only be one of the first of many to offer this easier method for proving vaccination status.

What you need to know

• With iOS 15, you can store verifiable health records in the Health app.
• Examples of what can be stored are COVID-19 vaccinations and test results.
• Apple says the Wallet app will soon support digital vaccination cards.

Some iPhone users will now be able to add their COVID-19 vaccination card to the Health app.

In an update on the Apple Developer website, Apple has announced that users running iOS 15 can now store verifiable health records, like a COVID-19 vaccination card, in the Health app. At this time, Apple is supporting the SMART Health Cards specification.

The company says that, in a future software update, you'll even be able to add your vaccination card to the Wallet app and use a digital version where it is required.

Developers can learn more about verifiable health records and how to implement them on the Apple Developer website.

iOS 15 was released to the public on Monday, September 20.

What you need to know

• Code in the Oculus app for iPhone shows that it may soon sync with Apple's Health app.
• The feature would let Oculus users sync their workout data over to their iPhone.

A new report says you may soon be able to do a workout on Facebook's Oculus headset and save your workout data to the Apple Health app.

As reported by Bloomberg, Facebook is looking to integrate its Oculus virtual-reality headsets with Apple's Health app, according to some code found in the Oculus phone app. The feature would allow a user of the Oculus Move workout system to track their workout statistics and have them sync over with Apple's Health app.

The Apple Health app allows users to store and track their health data in one place while keeping their information private. A ton of apps and services already integrated with the app. From Nike Run Club to Strava, you're able to store all of your workout data. The app also integrates with more and more health providers so you can share all of this data securely with your doctor.

The potential feature was discovered by developer Steve Moser, who also pointed out that Facebook is hiring in the health space as well.

It's currently unclear if Facebook will actually launch the feature, but it would be pretty great as more and more people turn to virtual reality for their workouts.

Most of us are interested in finding new ways to get healthier, lose weight, elevate athletic performance, or improve overall nutrition. From fitness trackers like Apple Watch Series 6 to the best connected fitness equipment, there is a lot of tech out there to help us accomplish these goals. Tracking metabolism and improving your metabolic flexibility is a tried and tested method for weight loss, athletic endurance, and leading a healthier lifstyle. That's why I've been using Lumen and measuring my metabolism daily over the past month. Lumen is a metabolism tracker that will deliver personalized, nutrition plans based on your metabolic rate. It gives insight on how your metabolism affects your body, the way you feel, and what you should be eating to achieve your health and fitness goals.

Lumen review: Price and availability

Lumen is currently available at Lumen.me for $349. It comes packaged with a convenient travel case, charging dock, and USB-C cable. Users can download the app for free on the Apple App Store and on Google Play. If you have one of the best Apple Watches with watchOS 6 or higher, you can download the Lumen app straight from your wrist on the Apple Watch App Store.

Lumen review: Easy to use, portable, informative

Lumen is user friendly, compact, and portable. It comes with a handy travel case that makes it easy to take anywhere. It calculates your breath measurements in seconds and gives a lot of insight on your metabolism and how it relates to your health. Based on the information you input, you'll get daily nutrition plans to help achieve your health and fitness goals. It will ask you what track you'd like to pursue: healthy weight loss, metabolic health, or fitness performance. My personal goal is weight loss. When I created my profile in the Lumen app, I wanted to lose 10 pounds. The app said that by improving my metabolic flexibility, I will reach my goal by October.

After using Lumen for one month, and following my daily nutrition plan as closely as possible, I'm on track to achieving my goal. Lumen arrives in sleek packaging and comes with enough charge to get you tracking right away. It has excellent battery life. After taking my initial measurements, I fully charged my device. I've used it multiple times a day for a full month, and the battery is currently at 55%.

Lumen determines your metabolic rate by measuring the CO2 concentration in your breath. The most important measurement is your morning breath. You'll want to take this breath right after you get up, before eating anything. This measurement is used to create your personalized nutrition plan for that day. You're encouraged to measure before and after exercise, before and after eating, before sleeping, and after fasting. You can also create custom check-ins to see how your activity throughout the day affects your metabolism. The more measurements you take, the better Lumen is able to assist with reaching your goals.

The ultimate goal is to increase your metabolic flexibility. Metabolic flexibility is your body's ability to switch back and forth between burning fat and carbohydrates based on their availability. Lumen measures your breath to see if your body is burning fat, carbs, or both, then rates these measurements on a scale of one to five. One indicates that you're burning fat for energy, and five indicates you're burning carbs. Ideally, you want to burn more fat for energy so your body partitions carbohydrates into muscle instead of storing them as fat. Blowing ones and twos is your morning goal. These numbers mean your burning fat for energy and improving your metabolic flexibility.

The Lumen app hosts a wealth of information. This is where you'll find all of your stored measurements, health insights, nutrition plans, meal suggestions, and advice. Because my goal is weight loss, Lumen generally creates low carb nutrition plans for me. The recommended carb servings in my daily plan, allow me to maintain a state of fat burn. You're asked to log exercise, carb intake, and fasting hours (hours between your last meal of the day and breakfast the next morning) each day. Lumen takes all of this data into account when creating your nutrition plan. Good news, ladies: there's an option to track your monthly cycle. It will tell you how your cycle affects your metabolism and the way you feel. At the time of testing, the app can only support women with a regular 28 day cycle.

I think it's easiest to track macros while following your nutrition plan. If tracking macros isn't your thing, there are other methods of tracking, such as weighing your food with a scale, keeping a food log, or carefully reading nutrition labels. Tracking what you eat, and learning how food affects your metabolic rate, and your body's ability to burn fat, is integral for weight loss, and healthier choices overall. The reason Lumen is effective, is because it holds you accountable, and shines light on how diet and lifestyle affect metabolic flexibility.

Lumen review: Pricey, takes practice, more meal options

Lumen is pricey, especially when compared to other similar products on the market; more on that later. But I have found it effective — I've learned a lot about my metabolism, and how to improve my metabolic flexibility to achieve my goals. It holds me accountable and encourages me to make healthier choices, but is it overpriced? Yes. Does it work? Yes. If you can expense it, it is a helpful tool.

When you log into the app for the first time, it will instruct you to take some practice breaths so you get a handle on what it needs for a successful measurement. Practice is necessary. Sometimes, it will ask me to take two breath measurments in succession. It will ask you to wait 12 seconds in between multiple breath measurements, which is kind of annoying, but you're supposed to be relaxed, so I think it's just trying to get you there. Although, sometimes this creates the opposite effect.

There is a section in the app for meal inspiration that you can tap to find meals that fit your daily plan. Overall, I this section could use more options, and they could be more creative. They're generally pretty plain. I've yet to be presented with healthy dessert options, and the app frowns on alcohol consumption — high in calories and carbs. I get it, skipping dessert and passing on alcohol is the healthiest choice, but is it realistic every day? For me, no. I definitely like to indulge in dessert from time to time, and I do enjoy the occasional glass of wine. These choices do affect my metabolism however. It shifts from burning fat for energy, to mostly carbs, which is the opposite of what I want to get closer to my goal. Lumen has shown me that.

Lumen review: Competition

V2 Ketoscan

The V2 Ketoscan is a portable breath acetone analyzer that measures the ketone level and calculates your body fat burning rate in your exhaled breath. It records and monitors your acetone levels and weight daily, monthly and annually, then stores this data in the mobile app. It doesn't offer personalized nutrition plans, and the app looks pretty basic. Lumen is sexier and more advanced, but to cost more than double the price, it better be.

FoodMarble Aire

FoodMarble Aire is a portable breath tester that works in tandem with its companion app to help find the foods most compatible with your digestive system. You can record your fermentation scores, log foods, track symptoms, stress, and sleep, as well as test your tolerability to individual foods within the app. Aire enables you to measure gas levels (specifically hydrogen) in the gut to track how food is being digested so you can make healthier choices. The goal of this device is to show how your breath scores and symptoms vary over time so you can identify personal triggers. The goal of this product is different than Lumen's, but both are designed to help the user achieve better health.

Lumen review: Should you buy it?

• You want to hack your metabolism
• You want portable, personal nutrition
• You want to make healthy, educated choices

• You're on a budget
• You're looking for bountiful healthy recipes

You should buy Lumen if you want to understand your metabolism and see the correlation between the food you eat, workouts, and your body's ability to burn fat for energy. Lumen is like carrying a portable, personal nutritionist with you wherever you go. It helps the user make healthier, informed choices. But you shouldn't buy this if you're on a budget — it's pricey. Or if you're looking for incredible healthy recipes. Lumen offers meal suggestions, but there could be more colorful options.

Lumen has given me valuable insight on my health and how my lifestyle choices affect my metabolism. I understand my metabolic rate on a deeper level than I did prior to using this device. A healthy diet and consistent exercise are integral to improving metabolic flexibility. Lumen makes hacking your metabolism accessible, holds you accountable, and offers a lot of personalized insight and guidance on how to get your body into prime fat burning mode. I've learned a lot and I think investing in Lumen is an effective way to achieve your health and fitness goals.

What you need to know

• Kevin Lynch and Deidre Caldbeck joined Rene Ritchie for an interview after WWDC21.
• The group discussed watchOS, digital keys, and Apple's work in the health sector.

As usual, Apple VP Kevin Lynch was "on stage" at WWDC21 this year to talk about the future of Apple Watch with watchOS 8.

To dive deeper into some of the features announced for the watch as well as other announcements around Apple's health features, Lynch and Deidre Caldbeck joined Rene Ritchie for a wide-ranging interview.

At one point, Caldbeck dove deep into the idea that Apple Watch has become more and more of an identity device and that the latest features, like state IDs and digital keys, only solidify that fact.

One of the new features announced at WWDC was the ability for the iPhone to detect if you may be at risk of falling in the near future. Lynch says that it is a feature that has taken years to develop and that the company's health studies were the catalyst to uncovering the data needed in order to predict this risk.

You can watch the entire interview below. If you want to pick up an Apple Watch and start tracking your health, check out our list of the Best Apple Watch in 2021.

What you need to know

• The Mayo Clinic has added support for Health Records on iPhone.
• Patients can now access their health data through the Health app.

If you are a patient of the Mayo Clinic, you can finally access your health data through the Health app on your iPhone.

The health institution has announced in a press release that it has added support for Apple's Health Records feature which allows patients to access health data from multiple providers through the Health app on the iPhone.

Steve Ommen, M.D., Medical Director of Experience Products for Mayo Clinic's Center for Digital Health, said that the feature "can be helpful for accessing records and tracking daily fitness and diet" and that the clinic intends to make the feature "as secure and transparent as possible, with patients in control of what they choose to share."

Health Records allow users of the Health app to access and even share medical data with their healthcare providers if they choose to do so. The overall idea is to gather all possible health data and, from that, help you better understand your health and make more informed decisions. The Health app is currently only available on iPhone and comes preinstalled with iOS.

If you want to really get into tracking your health, check out our list of the Best Apple Watch 2021.

What you need to know

• A new patent talks about potential health coaching features in the Health app.
• It also hints at blood glucose monitoring.

As reported from My Healthy Apple, Apple is conducting new research that could result in more targeted health coaching including assistance with blood glucose monitoring.

A new patent talks about notifying users in a more effective way, rather than adding to the endless alerts that many of us receive on our phones. It also talks about a potential health coach feature that would help users stay on course with their health goals.

The patent also talks about habit tracking to either encourage you to meet new habits or avoid bad ones.

While it is unclear when or if the feature will roll out to users, it is something to keep an eye on as Apple ventures further into the health area. The company, just last month, launched its Apple Fitness+ workout subscription service.

Apple Health Records is a feature that has been around for a few years now. This tool helps you keep your medical information safely on your iPhone. And yet, you probably haven't seen or heard much of it. However, Apple is always improving and expanding this feature. Learn more about it here!

What is Apple Health Records?

Apple Health Records is a feature built inside your iPhone's Health app. However, unlike your Health app, which tracks your regular information, like the heart rate that you take with your Apple Watch, or an external heart rate monitor, your Health Records store you clinical and medical history.

With the help of institutions that support and use Apple Health Records, you can quickly access your medical information from your iPhone, share it with doctors or medical providers, and even get your test results right inside the app.

This feature was created because of the huge popularity of the Health app and the Apple Watch had. Because of how easy it was to record and track a lot of data, including your steps, your heart rate, and even the workouts you made using the Fitness app, formerly known as the Activity app.

Is Apple Health Records really that important?

Source: Apple

It doesn't matter how you look at it, having your medical information at hand is important, and it's practical as well. Apple Health Records helps both the patients and the care providers.

It helps doctors, hospitals and clinics have quick access to your Electronic Health Record, or EHR for short. They can quickly learn everything about your medical history, instead of having to rely on your memory to give the correct information. This would be extremely helpful if you go to several medical institutions, or if you just changed doctors. That way is easier to learn from these records and give the patient a better, more efficient treatment.

And it helps you have your records at hand, making it easier to know about your clinical records, and to share them with any institution that you want. Plus, you can see any additional information that's updated to your Health Records, like some test results that the medical institution sends you.

The best part is that the Apple Health Record feature shows you all your medical information in simple terms. You don't have to be an expert to read and understand your data.

How many times have you forgotten about your prescriptions, or when you took your last blood test. With Health Records, you don't have to even think about your tests. Everything is neatly stored in one place.

Is Apple Health Records safe?

This is one of the most important questions. After all, your medical records are highly delicate and private information. Apple has always worked hard to ensure its users' privacy remains secure, and the company is doing the same for your medical records.

During an interview with Kevin Lynch, Apple's VP of Technology, he tells iMore how "At Apple we value privacy so highly, we built our system to manage health data including health records in the most secure way. Health data is some of the most important and sensitive data that people have, and privacy is core to everything that we do."

Ultimately, your medical history is secure behind Apple's Health Records features. The only way you can access it and share it with professionals and other apps is by entering your PIN, and using Touch ID or Face ID. Plus, Apple makes it very clear that your information is only shared with the institutions you chose, and once you send or receive any type of information, the information is shared without using Apple's network.

It's also worth noting that Apple states it's not creating, receiving, and maintaining or transmitting any protected health information. If you choose so, you can upload your data to iCloud, which will be encrypted as soon as you upload it.

Is Apple Health Records only available in the US?

No, not anymore. Recently Apple announced that Apple Health Records would finally expand to the UK and Canada would be able to use Apple Health Records with only a few medical institutions. However, Apple also said there will be more institutions available in the upcoming months.

What healthcare providers participate in Apple Health Records?

You can transfer your health records from a multitude of healthcare providers into the Apple Health app. Here is a complete list of them in alphabetical order! We'll add more providers as they're announced.

• Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (England, UK)
• Oxford University Hospitals NHS, Foundation Trust (England, UK)

• Mackenzie Health (Ontario, Canada)
• St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (Ontario, Canada)
• Women's College Hospital (Ontario, Canada)

• Abigail Family Medicine (Delaware)
• Richard M. Adams, DPM - Family Foot Care (Texas)
• Adult Internal Medicine (North Carolina)
• Adventist Health (California, Oregon, Hawaii)
• Adventist Health System (Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and others)
• Adventist HealthCare (Maryland)
• Naomi Akita, M.D. (Georgia)
• Dr. Hussain Al-darsani, MD (California)
• Albany Surgical, PC (Georgia)
• Alfieri Cardiology PA (Delaware)
• Allegheny Health Network (Pennsylvania)
• Allen County Regional Hospital (Kansas)
• Allentown Family Foot Care Professional Corporation (Pennsylvania)
• Allina Health (Minnesota, Wisconsin)
• ALON Family Health (Texas)
• Jason Amato, MD Dermatology LLC (Missouri)
• AMITA Health (Illinois)
• AnMed Health (Georgia)
• Arlington Podiatry (Virginia)
• Artesia General Hospital (New Mexico)
• Ashland Mansfield Foot & Ankle Specialist (Ohio)
• Associated Podiatrists (Wisconsin)
• Associates in Internal Medicine PA (Florida)
• AtlantiCare (New Jersey)
• Atrium Health (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia)
• ATX Orthopedics (Texas)
• Augusta Health (Virginia)
• Aultman Health Foundation (Ohio)
• Austin Regional Clinic (Texas)
• Aveon Health (Arizona)
• Rabia S. Awan, MD, PA (New Jersey)
• Jalal Badday, MD (California)
• Bal K. Gupta, MD, PC (Michigan)
• Ballad Health (Tennessee)
• Banner Health (California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska)
• Baptist Health (Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois)
• Baptist Health South Florida (Florida)
• Barton Health (California)
• Bates County Memorial Hospital (Missouri)
• Bay Clinic, LLP (Oregon)
• BayCare (Florida)
• Bayhealth Medical Center (Delaware)
• Baylor College of Medicine (Texas)
• Baylor, Scott & White Health (Texas)
• Baylor, Scott & White Texas Spine & Joint Hospital (Texas)
• Baystate Health (Massachusetts)
• BCMH Physicians Group (Michigan)
• Beaumont Health (Michigan)
• Behavior Change Center Clinic (Texas)
• Dr. Bryce Beseth (California)
• Better Me Healthcare (Florida)
• Black River Memorial Hospital (Wisconsin)
• Blanchard Valley Health System (Ohio)
• Blessing Health System (Illinois)
• Boca Raton Regional Hospital (Florida)
• Bon Secours Health System (Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida)
• Boone County Health Center (Nebraska)
• Dr. Albert Boyd, MD (Texas)
• Brain Vitals (California)
• Brandon M. Lingenfelter, D.O., Ph.D., PLLC (West Virginia)
• Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (Vermont)
• Bristol Hospital (Connecticut)
• Broadlawns Medical Center (Iowa)
• Broadwater Health Center (Montana)
• Broward Health (Florida)
• Brownsville OB/GYN Associates, PLLC (Texas)
• Buffalo Medical Group (New York)
• Burgess Health Center (Iowa)
• Cabinet Peaks Medical Center (Montana)
• Caneva Foot & Ankle Clinic (Illinois)
• CaroMont Health (North Carolina)
• Carroll County Memorial Hospital (Missouri)
• Carson Valley Medical Center (Nevada)
• Catholic Health Initiatives - CHI Health, CHI Franciscan Health, CHI St Luke's Health, CHI St. Alexius Health (Nebraska, Iowa, Washington, Texas, North Dakota)
• Catholic Health Services of Long Island (New York)
• Cayuga Medical Center (New York)
• Cedar Hill Women's Center (Texas)
• Cedars-Sinai (California)
• Center for Manual Medicine (Kansas)
• Centers for Pain Control (Indiana)
• Centra Health (Virginia)
• Central Valley Medical Center (Utah)
• Centura Health (Colorado and Kansas)
• Cerner Healthe Clinic (Kansas, Missouri)
• CGH Medical Center (Illinois)
• Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (New York)
• Charleston Area Medical Center (West Virginia)
• Chase County Community Hospital (Nebraska)
• Asim Chohan, MD (Oklahoma)
• Christiana Care Health System (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey)
• Circle Health (Massachusetts)
• Citizens Memorial Hospital (Missouri)
• Clarinda Regional Health Center (Iowa)
• Cleveland Clinic (Ohio, Nevada, and Florida)
• Cogdell Memorial Hospital (Texas)
• Columbia Pacific Medical Services (Oregon)
• Columbus Regional Healthcare System (North Carolina)
• Community Healthcare System (Indiana, Illinois, Michigan)
• Community Healthcare System (Kansas)
• Community Health Network (Indiana)
• Community Health Systems (Nationwide) - including AllianceHealth (OK), Bayfront Health (FL), Commonwealth Health (PA), Lutheran Health Network (IN), Merit Health (MO), Northwest Health (AR), Physicians Regional (FL), Tennova Healthcare (TN)
• Community Hospital Fairfax (Missouri)
• Community Medical Centers (California)
• Cone Health (North Carolina)
• Conemaugh Health System (Pennsylvania)
• Confluence Health (Washington)
• Consultants in Infectious Diseases LLC (Florida)
• Copley Hospital (Vermont)
• Coquille Valley Hospital (Oregon)
• Covenant Health (Tennessee)
• CoxHealth (Missouri)
• Crabapple Family Medicine, PC (Georgia)
• Crawford Memorial Hospital District (Illinois)
• Crisp Regional Hospital (Georgia)
• Cullman Regional (Alabama)
• Davis County Hospital (Iowa)
• Deaconess Health System (Indiana)
• Deborah Heart and Lung Center (New Jersey)
• Decatur County Hospital (Iowa)
• Delano Regional Medical Center (California)
• Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) (Nationwide)
• DeSoto Regional Health Systems (Louisiana)
• DHR Health (Texas)
• Diabetes and Endocrine Specialists (Kentucky)
• Digestive Disease Associates (Pennsylvania)
• Dignity Health (Arizona, California, and Nevada)
• DiToppa Medical Center (Pennsylvania)
• Doctors Care (South Carolina)
• Doylestown Health (Pennsylvania)
• Dr. Joan Sy Medical Corporation (California)
• DRH Health Inc. (Oklahoma)
• Dubuque Orthopaedic Surgeons, PC (Iowa)
• Duke Health (North Carolina)
• Edward-Elmhurst Health (Illinois)
• Eisenhower Health (California)
• Elkader Medical Center (Iowa)
• Ellsworth County Medical Center (Kansas)
• Embry Women's Health (Arizona)
• Emory Healthcare (Georgia)
• Englewood Health (New Jersey)
• Equality Medical Group, LLC (Arizona, California)
• Erie County Medical Center (New York)
• Erlanger Health System (Tennessee)
• Esperanza Health Centers (Chicago)
• Fairview Health (Minnesota)
• Family Foot and Ankle Clinic, P.A. (Minnesota)
• Family Footcare Specialist (New Jersey)
• Firelands Regional Health System (Ohio)
• First Choice Community Healthcare (New Mexico)
• First Coast Surgical Associates (Florida)
• Fisher-Titus Health (Ohio)
• Fitzgibbon Hospital (Missouri)
• Floyd Medical Center (Georgia)
• Florida Community Health Centers, Inc (Florida)
• Foot and Ankle Specialist (Arizona)
• Foot Specialists of Greater Cincinnati (Ohio)
• Fort Healthcare (Wisconsin)
• Franciscan Care Services (Nebraska)
• Franciscan Health (Indiana, Illinois)
• Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (Louisiana)
• Franklin County Memorial Hospital (Mississippi)
• Franklin General Hospital (Iowa)
• Franklin Neurology (Michigan)
• Frederick Health (Maryland)
• Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin (Wisconsin)
• Garfield Medical Center (California)
• Geisinger (Pennsylvania)
• Genesis Health System (Iowa)
• Genesis Healthcare System (Ohio)
• Grace Cottage Hospital (Vermont)
• Grand Lake Primary Care (Oklahoma)
• Grand View Health (Pennsylvania)
• Greater Baltimore Medical Center (Maryland)
• Greater El Monte Community Hospital (California)
• Greater Hudson Valley Health System (New York)
• Greater Salem Family Footcare Associates (New Hampshire)
• Greenville Health System (South Carolina)
• Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin (Wisconsin)
• Gunnison Valley Health (Colorado)
• Hackensack Meridian Health (New Jersey)
• Hal J. Freiman, M.D. (New York)
• David Hamilos, DPM (Tennessee)
• Hancock County Health System (Iowa)
• Hancock Health (Indiana)
• Hansen Family Hospital (Iowa)
• Thourya Haoues-Brown MD (Connecticut)
• Mehna A. Haq, MD (New Jersey)
• Harbin Clinic (Georgia)
• Harrington Physician Services (Massachusetts)
• Harrison County Hospital (Indiana)
• Hartford HealthCare (Connecticut, Rhode Island)
• Hattiesburg Clinic (Mississippi)
• Hawaii Foot & Ankle Associates (Hawaii)
• HB Magruder Memorial Hospital (Ohio)
• Health Quarters (Massachusetts)
• Hemphill County Hospital (Texas)
• Hendrick Medical Center (Texas)
• Henry Community Health (Indiana)
• Henry County Health Center (Iowa)
• Henry Ford Health System (Michigan)
• Highland District Hospital (Ohio)
• Hillsdale Hospital (Michigan)
• Holland Hospital (Michigan)
• Holy Cross Medical Center (New Mexico)
• Hospital for Special Surgery (New Jersey, New York)
• Hospital Sisters Health System (Illinois, Wisconsin)
• Houston Methodist (Texas)
• Hudson Medical (New York)
• Hudson Physicians (Wisconsin)
• Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital (North Carolina)
• Huntington Hospital (California)
• Huntsville Hospital Health System (Alabama)
• Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System (Kansas)
• Ida Family Wellness Center (Michigan)
• IM365 Health (California)
• Indiana University Health (Indiana)
• Indianapolis Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Indiana)
• Infectious Diseases Associates, PC (Nebraska)
• Innovative Express Care SC (Illinois)
• Inova Health System (Virginia)
• Inspira Health (New Jersey)
• Intermountain Healthcare (Utah)
• Iredell Memorial Hospital (North Carolina)
• Jaisohn Medical Center (Pennsylvania)
• Jefferson Health (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania)
• Jennings American Legion Hospital (Louisiana)
• Jersey Coast Family Medicine (New Jersey)
• John Muir Health (California)
• Johns Hopkins (Maryland)
• Johnson County Healthcare Center (Wyoming)
• Johnson County Hospital (Nebraska)
• Johnson Memorial Hospital (Indiana)
• Jupiter Medical Center (Florida)
• Kadin Foot & Ankle Center (New Jersey)
• Kahuku Medical Center (Hawaii)
• Kaiser Permanente (Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Mid-Atlantic States, and Hawaii)
• Kaleida Health (New York)
• Kalispell Regional Healthcare (Montana)
• Kansas Medical Center (Kansas)
• Kansas Nephrology Physicians, PA (Kansas)
• Keck Medicine of USC (California)
• Kettering Health Network (Ohio)
• KidneyCare Oklahoma (Oklahoma)
• Klamath Orthopedic Clinic (Oregon)
• Kingfisher Family Clinic (Oklahoma)
• Knoxville Hospital & Clinics (Iowa)
• Kohles Family Practice (Indiana)
• Kossuth Regional Health Center (Iowa)
• Kreptowski Family Practice (Ohio)
• Awani Kumar, MD, PC (New Jersey)
• LabCorp (Nationwide)
• Lafayette General Health (Louisiana)
• Lake Health (Ohio)
• Lake Regional Health System (Missouri)
• Lakeland Regional Health Systems (Florida)
• Lakes Region General Hospital (New Hampshire)
• Laredo Cardiovascular Consultants P.A. (Texas)
• Lavaca Medical Center (Texas)
• Lebanon Medical Associates (Kentucky)
• Legacy Health (Oregon and Washington)
• Lehigh Valley Health Network (Pennsylvania)
• Levine Heart & Wellness (Florida)
• Lexington Cardiology (Connecticut)
• LifeBridge Health (Maryland)
• LifePoint Health (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
• Lincoln Surgery Center (Nebraska)
• Little Colorado Medical Center (Arizona)
• LMH Health (Kansas)
• Long Island Surgery, PC (New York)
• Steve Lovelady, MD LLC (Alabama)
• Lynn County Hospital District (Texas)
• David J. MacGregor, MD (California)
• Madison Memorial Health Partners (Idaho)
• Magnolia Regional Health Center (Arkansas)
• Main Line Health (Pennsylvania)
• MaineHealth (Maine, New Hampshire)
• Mammoth Hospital (California)
• Martin County Hospital District (Texas)
• Perry Mansfield, MD (California)
• Margaret Mary Community Hospital (Indiana)
• Martin County Hospital Distrct (Texas)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital (California)
• Fernando L. Martinez-Catinchi, MD PA (Florida)
• Mary Washington Healthcare (Virginia)
• Maui Health System (Hawaii)
• Tony S. McClung, MD (Texas)
• McDonough District Hospital (Illinois)
• McKnight Clinic PLLC (Tennessee)
• McLaren Health Care (Michigan)
• MCR Health (Florida)
• Medical Associates Clinic (Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin)
• Medical Clinic of Northville (Michigan)
• Medical Health Center of Middletown, INC. (New Jersey)
• Medical University of South Carolina (South Carolina)
• MedStar Health (Maryland and Washington D.C.)
• Memorial Community Health, Inc. (Nebraska)
• Memorial Health Care Systems (Nebraska)
• Memorial Healthcare System (Florida)
• Mercy Health (Missouri)
• Mercy Medical Center (Iowa)
• Methodist Health System (Nebraska)
• Methodist Health System (Texas)
• Methodist Hospital of Southern California (California)
• Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (Tennessee)
• Metro Infectious Disease Consultants (Illinois)
• Miami Pulmonary Specialists (Florida)
• Michigan Institute for Interventional Pain (Michigan)
• Michigan Medicine (Michigan)
• Mid-America Internal Medicine (Missouri)
• Mid-Columbia Medical Center (Oregon)
• Middlebrook Family Physicians, PA (New Jersey)
• MidMichigan Health (Michigan)
• Midwest Surgical Hospital (Nebraska)
• Milford Regional Medical (Massachusetts)
• Millennium Physician Group (Florida)
• Minnie Hamilton Health System (West Virginia)
• Mission Health (North Carolina)
• Missouri Delta Medical Center (Missouri)
• MIT Medical (Massachusetts)
• Moffitt Cancer Center (Florida)
• Monroe County Hospital & Clinics (Iowa)
• Monroe Foot Clinic (Wisconsin)
• Monroe Surgical Hospital (Louisiana)
• Monterey Park Hospital (California)
• Mosaic Life Care (Missouri)
• Mount Sinai (New York)
• Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (Vermont)
• MU Health Care (Missouri)
• Munson Heathcare (Michigan)
• Munson Healthcare Charlevoix Hospital (Michigan)
• Murfreesboro Medical Clinic and Surgicenter (Tennessee)
• Navicent Health (Georgia)
• Nebraska Cardiac Care (Nebraska)
• Nebraska Foot & Ankle, PC (Nebraska)
• Nebraska Medicine (Nebraska)
• Nemaha County Hospital (Nebraska)
• Neosho Memorial (Kansas)
• Neurology LLP (Omaha)
• Nevada Regional Medical Center (Missouri)
• New Hampton Medical Center (Iowa)
• New Hanover Regional Medical Center (North Carolina)
• New York Presbyterian - Hudson Valley Hospital (New York)
• Next Step Orthopedics (Texas)
• North Canyon Medical Center (Idaho)
• North Kansas City Hospital (Missouri)
• Northeastern Health System (Oklahoma)
• Northfield Hospital + Clinics (Minnesota)
• Northern Light Health (Maine)
• NorthRiver Primary Care Associates (Alabama)
• Northside Hospital (Georgia)
• Northwest Community Healthcare (Illinois)
• Northwest Physicians Associates (Pennsylvania)
• Northwestern Medical (Vermont)
• Northwestern Medicine (Illinois)
• Norton Healthcare (Indiana, Kentucky)
• Nouriche Wellness and Aesthetics (Louisiana)
• NYU Langone Health (New York)
• Ocean County Foot & Ankle Surgical Associates (New Jersey)
• http://ochsner.org (Louisiana)
• http://ohiohealth.com (Ohio)
• OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) (Oregon)
• Old Naples Concierge Medicine (Florida)
• Olean Medical Group (New York)
• Omni Dermatology (Arizona)
• Opelousas General Health System (Louisiana)
• Open Door Health (California)
• Orchard Hospital (California)
• Orchid Ob/Gyn (Florida)
• Orleans Community Health (New York)
• OrthoNebraska (Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa)
• Orthopedic & Sports Medicine of Saint Joseph (Missouri)
• OrthoVirginia (Virginia)
• Osmond General Hospital (Nebraska)
• OSU Medicine (Oklahoma)
• Othello Community Hospital (Washington)
• Overlake Hospital Medical Center (Washington)
• Ozark Health Medical Center (Arkansas)
• Pagosa Springs Medical Center (Colorado)
• Palo Alto County Health System (Iowa)
• Pana Community Hospital (Illinois)
• Park City Gynecology (Utah)
• Parkview Medical Center (Colorado)
• Partners HealthCare (including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital)
• Hiren Patel, MD (Alabama)
• PeaceHealth (Alaska, Oregon, Washington)
• Peachtree Nephrology, PC (Georgia)
• Penn Medicine (Pennsylvania)
• Penn State Health (Pennsylvania)
• Pensacola Foot & Ankle Center (Florida)
• Peoria Foot & Ankle Specialists (Arizona)
• Perlman Clinic (California)
• Pershing Memorial Hospital (Missouri)
• Personalized Primary Care Atlanta (Georgia)
• Peterson Health (Texas)
• Physicians Urgent Care - Cookeville (Tennessee)
• PIH Health (California)
• Pinnacle Health Group (Florida)
• Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (Massachusetts)
• Podiatry Associates (South Carolina)
• Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (California)
• Pratt Regional Medical Center (Kansas)
• Precision Surgical Specialists of Lowell, P.C. (Massachusetts)
• Premier Health (Ohio)
• Premier Medical Group (Tennessee)
• Prime Healthcare (California, Texas)
• Princeton Community Hospital (West Virginia)
• Professional Associates in Surgery, LLP (New Jersey)
• Providence Health & Services (Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon, and Washington)
• Providence Medical Center (Nebraska)
• Quest Diagnostics (Nationwide)
• Rancho Family Medical Group (California)
• Randolph Community Clinic (Wisconsin)
• Basel Refai, MD (Alabama)
• Regional One Health (Tennessee)
• Regional Urology (Louisiana)
• Renal Associates of LaGrange at Emory (Georgia)
• Renown Health (Nevada)
• Reyes Cardiology (Oregon)
• Thomas R. Rich, DPM (New Jersey)
• Riverside Medical Center (Louisiana)
• Riverview Health (Indiana)
• Rochester Internists (Michigan)
• Rocky Mountain Infectious Disease (Wyoming)
• Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital (Texas)
• Rush Memorial Hospital (Indiana)
• Rush University Medical Center (Illinois)
• RWJBarnabas Health (New Jersey)
• Juan J. Salazar MD (Texas)
• San Antonio Regional Hospital (California)
• San Gabriel Valley Medical Center (California)
• San Francisco Gynecology, INC. (California)
• Sansum Clinic (California)
• Sarasota Memorial Health (Florida)
• Sauk Prairie Healthcare (Wisconsin)
• Scituate Podiatry Group, Inc (Massachusetts)
• Scripps Health (California)
• Seiff Center for Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery (Delaware)
• Shahla Medical Associates (Florida)
• Kishwar Shareef, MD (New Jersey)
• Sharp Healthcare (California)
• Shenandoah Medical Center (Iowa)
• Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (SRA Lab) (Illinois)
• Sicher Foot Center (Texas)
• Sigma Pain Clinic (Texas)
• Silver Cross Hospital (Illinois)
• Singing River Health System (Mississippi)
• Dr. Chad Smoker, MD (North Carolina)
• Solano Kidney Care, Inc. (California)
• Southcoast Health System (Massachusetts)
• Southeast Colorado Hospital District (Colorado)
• Southeast Health (Missouri)
• Southern Iowa Orthopedics (Iowa)
• Southwest General (Ohio)
• Southwest Memorial Hospital (Colorado)
• Southwestern Women's Clinic (Texas)
• Sparta Community Hospital District (Illinois)
• Speare Memorial Hospital (New Hampshire)
• Specialists Hospital of Shreveport (Louisiana)
• Spectrum Healthcare Group (Arizona)
• St. Charles Health System (Oregon)
• St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital (Mississippi)
• St. Joseph's Health (New Jersey)
• St. Luke Hospital and Living Center (Kansas)
• St. Luke's Health System (Idaho and Eastern Oregon)
• St. Luke's Hospital (Minnesota, Wisconsin)
• St. Luke's Hospital (Missouri)
• St. Luke's Hospital (Ohio)
• St. Luke's University Health Network (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)
• St. Mary's Medical Center (Wyoming)
• Stanford Health Care (California)
• State of Franklin Healthcare (Tennessee)
• Stewart Dermatology (Alabama)
• Robert S. Stipek, DPM (Massachusetts)
• Summit Medical Group (New Jersey)
• Sunrise Family Clinic (Oregon)
• Sunset ID Care PA (Texas)
• Surgical Associates of Atlanta, P.C. (Georgia)
• Sutter Health (California)
• Swisher Memorial Hospital District (Texas)
• Syringa Hospital & Clinics (Idaho)
• Tampa General Hospital (Florida)
• Tenet Health (Alabama, Florida)
• Texas Health Resources (Texas)
• Texas Tech Health Sciences Center (Texas)
• Thayer County Health Services (Nebraska and Kansas)
• The Brooklyn Hospital Center (New York)
• The Christ Hospital Health Network (Ohio)
• The Foot & Leg Specialty Center (Florida)
• The Guthrie Clinic (Pennsylvania, New York)
• The Hypertension Clinic (New Jersey)
• The Listening Doctor (Florida)
• The National Diabetes & Obesity Research Institute (Mississippi)
• The San Antonio Orthopaedic Group (Texas)
• The University of Kansas Health System (Kansas)
• Think Healthcare (Nebraska)
• Thiru, MD, PA (New Jersey)
• Tidelands Health (South Carolina)
• Tift Regional Health System (Georgia)
• TMH Physician Partners-Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep (Florida)
• Torrance Memorial Medical Center (California)
• Total Foot Care (Delaware)
• Tower Health (Pennsylvania)
• Treasure Coast Podiatry (Florida)
• Trinity Health (Nationwide) - including Mount Carmel (OH), Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (MI), Trinity Health New England, Saint Agnes (CA), Saint Alphonsus (ID)
• Trinity Health (North Dakota)
• Truman Medical Centers (Missouri)
• UAB Medicine (Alabama)
• UC Davis Health (California)
• UC Irvine Health (California)
• UC San Diego Health (California)
• UCLA Health (California)
• UCSF Health (California)
• Ultimate Access Primary Care (Ohio)
• UMass Memorial Health Care (Massachusetts)
• UNC Medical Center (North Carolina)
• Union General Health Systems (Georgia)
• Union Hospital of Cecil County (Maryland)
• United Medical (Delaware)
• UnityPoint Health (Iowa)
• Universal Family Care (Tennessee)
• University Health Care System (Georgia)
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Arkansas)
• University of Chicago Medicine (Illinois)
• University of Iowa Health Care (Iowa)
• University of Louisville Hospital (Kentucky)
• University of Maryland Medical System (Maryland)
• University of Miami Health System (Florida)
• University of Rochester Medical Center (New York)
• University of Tennessee Medical Center (Tennessee)
• University of Texas Medical Branch Health (Texas)
• University of Utah Health (Utah)
• University of Virginia Health System (Virginia)
• UPMC (Pennsylvania)
• Upstate Medical University (New York)
• Urgent Care Now (New Jersey)
• Urology Associates Central Coast (California)
• Urology Associates of Central MO (Missouri)
• Urology Partners of North Texas (Texas)
• USA Health (Alabama)
• UT Health Austin (Texas)
• UT Physicians (Texas)
• Vail Health (Colorado)
• Valley Health System (New Jersey, New York)
• Valley Medical Group (Massachusetts)
• Valley Perinatal Services (Arizona)
• Valley Presbyterian Hospital (California)
• Vancouver Clinic (Washington)
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Tennessee)
• Van Diest Medical Center (Iowa)
• Dr. Catherine F. Vanderloos (Louisiana)
• Vascular Surgery Associates (Florida)
• VCU Health (Virginia)
• Ventura County Healthcare Agency (California)
• Verdugo Dermatology (California)
• Vibrant Health Family Clinics (Wisconsin)
• Virginia Mason Medical Center (Washington)
• Vista Physician Group (Illinois)
• Wabash General (Illinois)
• Waterbury Hospital (Connecticut)
• Wayland Personal Physicians (Massachusetts)
• Wayne HealthCare (Ohio)
• Weill Cornell Medicine (New York)
• West Broadway Clinic (Iowa)
• West Tennessee Healthcare (Tennessee)
• Wheeling Hospital, Inc. (West Virginia)
• Whiteville Eye Associates, P.A. (North Carolina)
• Willow Midwives Ltd (Minnesota)
• Winona Health (Minnesota)
• Women's Group for Health (California)
• Women's Health Institute (Illinois)
• Wood County Hospital (Ohio)
• Working For Life - Engineered Floors (Georgia)
• WVU Medicine (West Virginia)
• Yale New Haven Health (Connecticut)
• Yavapai Regional Medical Center (Arizona)
• Yoakum Community Hospital (Texas)
• Yuma Regional Medical Center (Arizona)

Thoughts? Questions?

Still have some burning questions regarding the Health Records API that you need answered? Share them in the comments below and we'll do our best to answer them as we learn more.

Updated October 2020: Updated with the latest information about Apple Health Records.

When you move to a new Apple Watch or new iPhone, or even if you're just nervous about updating to iOS 14 or watchOS 7, one thing you need to keep an eye on is your health data. Because it's a very private set of information, it's available as an optional set of data to sync to iCloud in iOS 11 and later and via encrypted iCloud, macOS, and iTunes backups. If you want to move to a new device, however, you'll need to decide how to bring that information over.

This is what you should know about how to transfer health data from your old devices to your new ones.

Option 1: Back up your health data with an encrypted iCloud or Mac backup

While the Apple Watch doesn't make a backup in the "true" sense of the word, it does sync Health data to your iPhone's health repository, along with saving watch faces and the like as a package inside of your iPhone backup. To recover your health data, you'll need to make a backup of your Health repository — and that means making an iPhone backup.

You create encrypted iCloud backups whenever you back up to iCloud with your iPhone, but creating encrypted backups with your Mac is a bit of a different beast. Here's how to do it.

In macOS Catalina, backing up to iTunes is no longer an option, as that app's functions have now been split into the Music, Podcasts, and TV apps. The device backup feature, meanwhile, resides in Finder on Mac. Here's what you need to do to back up there.

1. Connect your device to your Mac.
2. Click the Finder icon in the dock.
3. Click on your device under Locations in the Finder sidebar.

4. Click the checkbox next to Encrypt Local Backups if it's not already checked.
5. Click Back Up Now to manually initiate a backup.

1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer via USB.
2. Open iTunes
3. Click on the device icon in the tab bar.

4. Click Summary if you're not already in that section.
5. Click the checkbox next to Encrypt iPhone/iPad backup. This will allow your Health data to be backed up.

6. Back Up Now under Manually Back Up and Restore.

Option 2: Sync with iCloud

Apple offers encrypted syncing of your Health data to iCloud, just as it stores your notes, keychain, and other information. Before you decide to go down this route, however, you'll want to make sure both your iPhone and your Apple Watch are updated to at the latest versions of iOS and watchOS, respectively.

How to sync your Health data with iCloud

Once enabled, iCloud will sync your health data; if you decide to set up a new iPhone before setting up a new Apple Watch, you should be able to sync that over to your Apple Watch with no problem.

Option 3: Use the iOS local data migration tool

Starting with iOS 12.4, Apple introduced a new way to securely transfer data directly between devices over Wi-Fi or through a direct, wired connection using a Lightning-to-USB adapter. This method is available to you when you use Apple's quick transfer method when setting up a new iPhone.

How to use iPhone-to-iPhone migration

What now?

Once you've set up a plan for restoring your health data on a new iPhone or new Apple Watch, you can start the upgrade process. Be sure to follow our guides to restoring your Apple Watch or iPhone from backup, as well as how to sync your Health data.

Questions?

Have any questions about how to transfer health data to a new iPhone or Apple Watch? Let us know down in the comments.

Updated September 2020: Updated for iOS 14. Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this article.

What you need to know

• Apple is teaming up with health insurer Anthem and U.C. Irvine on a new asthma study.
• The study will include nine-hundred participants.
• Each will receive a Beddit sleep monitor and Apple Watch to collect data.

Reported by CNBC, Apple is teaming up with Anthem and U.C. Irvine to study the relationship between blood oxygen levels and asthma. The study is set to last for two years, and Apple hopes to use the results to potentially build out a new feature in the Apple Watch that could help those with asthma to manage their condition.

Warris Bokhari, Vice President of Digital Care Delivery at Anthem, says that the insurer hopes that the study may help those with asthma manage their condition more proactively, meaning that they will need to use the healthcare system less.

Myoung Cha, Apple's Head of Health Strategic Initiatives, says that Apple hopes that the study may yield data that can be used to help Apple Watch detect asthma symptoms before they get serious.

The study will include nine-hundred participants between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four. They will need to be a member of an Anthem associated healthcare plan and own an iPhone. The study will be providing a Beddit sleep monitor and Apple Watch to all of the participants in order to collect all of the data researchers are looking for.

Health experts are encouraged by the new study, but do warn that it alone may not be enough the bring the kind of asthma-monitoring feature many would expect to get out of their Apple Watch.

The new study is looking to use the new Apple Watch Series 6 and its new blood oxygen monitoring feature, which is releasing to the public on Friday.

What you need to know

• Apple announced three new health studies at its September event.
• Each new study focuses on studying the relationship between blood oxygen levels with other conditions.
• The new studies will require an Apple Watch Series 6.

In its press release on the Apple Watch Series 6, Apple also mentioned three new Apple health studies that the company will be launching alongside its new Watch. The company announced that each new study is made possible by the new blood oxygen level monitoring featured in the Apple Watch Series 6.

The first study, put on between Apple and the University of California, Irvine, and Anthem, will focus on the influence of blood oxygen levels and their relationship to asthma.

The second study with the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the University Health Network will seek to understand the relationship between blood oxygen levels and heart failure.

The final study with the Seattle Flu Study at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine and faculty from the University of Washington School of Medicine will attempt to find a connection between Heart Rate and Blood Oxygen information captured by Apple Watch could detect respiratory conditions.

All three studies will require users to own an Apple Watch Series 6 with its new blood oxygen monitoring.

What you need to know

• Developers have found new features in the iOS 13.6 beta.
• Apple has added a new Symptoms section to the Apple Health app.
• Users are also now able to customize if iOS automatically downloads and installs software updates.

Developers have been taking a look at the new iOS 13.6 beta since this morning and there have already been a few notable updates discovered for iPhone owners.

Reported by MacRumors, iOS 13.6 will give users more granular control on how software updates to iOS occur on their devices. While the current version of iOS automatically downloads and installs software updates overnight, users will now be able to turn this feature off in multiple ways.

MacRumors also reports that Apple has added a new Symptoms section to the Apple Health app. Users will now be able to record symptoms they are experiencing such as appetite changes, chest tightness or pain, and congestion.

It is not yet clear when iOS 13.6 will be available for release to the public.

What you need to know

• Developers now have new guidelines for HealthKit.
• Guidance for using the Works with Apple Health Badge was also published.
• Apple revealed HealthKit in 2014.

On Monday, Apple revealed new guidelines for HealthKit for developers. The SDK allows app developers to integrate health-related insights to users by working with the Apple Health app. The updated HealthKit Human Interface Guidelines offer guidance on using the Apple Health icon in a third-party app, enhanced editorial guidance on using Apple Health-related terms, and clarifies privacy and data-usage guidelines.

The update also explains how app developers can now use the Works with Apple Health badge to promote HealthKit-enabled apps.

New HealthKit icon use guidelines state:

Under the new HealthKit editorial guidelines, Apple explains:

With regards to the Works with Apple Health Badge, Apple has noted requirements for localization, artwork, background color, clear space, and more. There's also a section explaining the "Dos and Don't" for the badge.

HealthKit was first introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2014 alongside the iOS 8 reveal.

Apple's Health app is a great way to track your health, whether you're looking at a specific statistic or your daily metrics. Having a continually updated, accurate measurement of your weight is important, both so you have a complete picture of your health, and also because weight can impact things such as your basal metabolic rate.

The weight data from Nokia's Body+ scale, while recorded directly into the Nokia Health Mate app, can also be read by Apple's Health app (along with Google's similar Fit app for Android). This lets all of your health data live in a single repository. You also don't need to look at any apps to see your weight progress since as the display on the scale will show you a trend line of your past several weigh-ins, as well as how much you've lost or gained since your last one.

In addition to the Health app, the Nokia Body+ and Health Mate app can synchronize data to a number of third-party apps like MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, and Runkeeper.

Going beyond weight

The Nokia Body+ measures more than just weight. Like the Aria 2, the Body+ also tracks Body Mass Index, as well as body fat percentage. The Body+ goes a bit beyond the Aria as well, measuring muscle mass to let you better target your efforts for losing weight or gaining muscle, hydration level, which offers insight into hydration and water retention, and bone mass, which measures your bone density.

The Body+ also comes with nutrition tracking features. You set a weight goal and a calorie budget, then track the food you eat in the Health Mate app. Combined with your weight data, the Body+ can accurately track your progress towards your weight goal and help you better manage the calories you take in.

Keeping track of the whole family

Just like the Fitbit Aria 2, the Nokia Body+ can track the stats for up to eight individual users, with each person's data synced independently. Importantly, you don't need to do anything to tell the Body+ that it's you stepping onto the scale. Based on your weight and other measurements, the scale will automatically recognize you, so your stats won't get mixed with those of the last person to use the scale.

In a nice final touch, because the Nokia Body+ is a Wi-Fi scale, it can connect to your home Wi-Fi network. If you choose to do that, the Body+ can give you a weather report to help you better plan your day, including any exercise you may be planning.

If you're a die-hard Fitbit fanatic, the Fitbit Aria 2 may still be the right scale for you. Like the Body+, the Aria 2 takes multiple measurements: including body weight, BMI, lean mass, and body fat percentage.

The Aria 2 works seamlessly with the Fitbit app, and if you where a Fitbit fitness tracker, all of that data provides a full picture of your health, much like the data that the Body+ and Nokia Health mate app share with Apple Health does.

While I'd still recommend the Body+ for most people, Fitbit users should definitely pick up the Aria 2.

iOS 11.3 added a new feature that lets iPhone users get a more comprehensive picture of their health. Users can now connect with their healthcare provider's online services to add their personal health records to the Health app. This lets patients view information like medications, lab results, immunizations, and allergies all in one place. Whenever your records are updated, you can see those updates in the Health app without having to do anything.

Here's how to get started setting up and viewing your health records in iOS 11.3 and newer.

• How to set up health records in the Health app
• How to view your health records
• How to delete health records

How to set up health records in the Health app

1. Open Health on your iPhone.
2. Tap Health Data.
3. Tap Health Records.

4. Tap Get Started.
5. Tap on your healthcare provider.

6. Tap on the network under Available to Connect.
7. Sign in to your healthcare provider's app or website. It might take some time for your records to update.

How to view your health records

1. Open Health on your iPhone.
2. Tap Health Data.
3. Tap Health Records.
4. Tap a category that you want to see.
5. Tap a record to get more specific information.

How to delete health records

1. Open Health on your iPhone.
2. Tap Health Data.
3. Tap Health Records.
4. Tap the provider whose information you want to remove.
5. Tap the provider again.
6. Tap Remove Account.
7. Tap Remove Account & Delete Data to confirm the removal.

Questions?

If you have any questions about using health records in the Health app on iOS 11.3 or newer, let us know in the comments.

Gyms are often intimidating places. When I walked into the flagship Equinox location in Toronto's swanky Yorkville neighborhood, I saw a guy effortlessly lunging across the room with what looked to be 100-pound dumbells in his hands. Like it was no big deal. Where was I?

To be fair, I'm not unfamiliar with the gym environment, but in recent years I've kept my training mostly at home, both to save money and to save myself the embarrassment of having to come face to face with perfect lungers.

I shouldn't have been worried, because before long my head was buried exactly where I like it: in a screen. I was there to demo Apple's nascent GymKit platform, which was announced at 2017's WWDC keynote but didn't debut in the U.S. until December. Having since arrived in several other countries, it's now available to use in Canada at Equinox gyms and on Life Fitness machines, and it's a really great experience.

The Apple Watch effect

Tracking exercise on the Apple Watch is one of its primary use cases for a reason: it's really good at it. Accurate and easy to set up, the experience of filling those rings is like nothing else on the market. And while many people already use Apple Watch at the gym, on treadmills, ellipticals, indoor bikes and stair steppers, the stats between Watch and machine don't always align. GymKit changes that by making a direct two-way connection between your vitals, as measured by Apple Watch, and the machine you're using.

Every Apple Watch has an NFC radio in it to use Apple Pay, and that same chip enables the handshake between Watch and treadmill, for example. It's a seamless process, since every piece of GymKit-enabled equipment has a specialized board in it to ensure the Bluetooth connection, once established, is strong and secure. (You just need to make sure your Apple Watch is running at least watchOS 4.)

Stats like calories burned, heart rate, distance, speed, and floors climbed show up on screen without ever having to place your hands on the machine, and once you end a workout, the link is severed and any personally-identifiable stats are purged, ensuring your privacy.

A late start

The beautiful thing about GymKit is that you don't have to use it immediately after beginning a run or cycle session — you can tap on the equipment's NFC reader any time after beginning a workout and all the data will be synced between Apple Watch and machine up until that point. Once the workout is over, all of the data is shared and stored on your Watch or iPhone.

I got to try the experience, and it's really as simple and seamless as it sounds. And on the Life Fitness equipment I tried, I was able to sit back and look at the virtual trail on screen, or even begin watching a show on Netflix or Hulu. While gyms will have to replace their existing equipment with GymKit-enabled equivalents, Equinox has committed to doing just that throughout the U.S. and Canada beginning this year, with other manufacturers like Matrix and Technogym following suit in other markets around the world (Apple is working only with Life Fitness and Equinox in Canada right now).

It just makes sense

Apple knows its market and understands that millions of Apple Watch owners also go to the gym; that Venn diagram is pretty spacious. Nearly everyone I saw during my visit to Equinox was wearing a fitness tracker of some sort, and the vast majority were Apple Watches. That makes sense: gym-goers want to track their workouts to measure improvement over time, and to share their accomplishments with friends and family.

That aspect has been a known quantity since the early days of Apple Watch. Now, though, the metrics part is taken care of: what you see (or, when you're running, don't see) on your Watch is now displayed beautifully on the machine's screen in front of you.

And when you're done checking your stats, you can go right back to watching Netflix — at the gym.

Apple now tracks heart rate variability (HRV) in the Health app alongside a number of other heart-related statistics. HRV statistics help you get a read on your sympathetic nervous system — how you're recovering from exercise or injury, your stress levels, and even your general heart health.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV): What is it, and why does the Apple Watch track it?

You can track HRV on your iPhone using a number of different apps, each of which uses a number of time- and frequency-based readings to help you get a read on your body. Here are our favorite options!

• Apple Health
• Welltory
• HRV4Training
• Elite HRV
• Other apps we tried

Apple Health

Unlike many of the other options on this list, Apple's Health app doesn't let you take HRV readings; instead, it collects the SDNN reading from your Apple Watch (if you have one) and any third-party HRV apps that write SDNN data.

Because Health currently only collects one of the many HRV metrics available to users, it's by nature pretty limited when it comes to analyzing your nervous system. You can go by some basic criteria (high = you're rested and ready to go; low = your nervous system is frazzled and needs a rest), but it's not the easiest app to use for those interested in learning more about HRV and why it's important.

Welltory

The friendliest app out there for HRV tracking that I've found is Welltory; it breaks down your HRV results into easily-readable areas like Performance (which represents your HRV in total), Energy (how your parasympathetic nervous system is working), and Stress (same for the sympathetic).

For basic measurements, you can use your iPhone's rear camera(though this may produce a higher margin of error); you can get precise measurements by using an external heart rate monitor.

The app is free to use for these basic measurements; upgrade to a paid subscription, however, and you can access more detailed measurements from your HRV calculation (including your LF/HF, VLF, SDNN, and more).

Free - Download Now

HRV4Training

HRV4Training also lets you use either your iPhone's rear camera or an external heart monitor to measure your HRV, but this $9.99 app is designed specifically for the athletic crowd.

It tracks the same metrics as Welltory, but uses a 30-day rolling scale to provide suggestions about your baseline and how you should train from day to day. You can get suggestions on your training load and fitness, readiness to perform, injury risk, and more. Link HRV4Training to Strava, and you can even get a lactate threshold estimator.

The data is also processed locally inside the app — no server-side processing required.

$9.99 - Download Now

Elite HRV

Elite HRV app has a ton of scientific data behind it and many happy users, but unlike Welltory or HRV4Training, you'll need an external heart rate monitor and a $4.99 in-app purchase to take full advantage of it. (You'll also have to sign up for an online account with Elite HRV.)

The app gives you a simple and clear way to interpret your HRV along with live biofeedback, guided breathing practice, and a team coaching platform to link up multiple users (if you're coaching a team, for example). Unfortunately, its UI hasn't yet been updated for iPhone X, but it's not a huge issue.

Free with $4.99 in-app purchase - Download Now

Other apps we tried

There are a few other apps out there that support HRV measurements, but they're not as solid as the above-mentioned three for a number of reasons.

• SweetBeat HRV, $13.99: This app uses slightly different formulas than Elite HRV, but has the same pros (happy users, lots of data) and cons (older, requires a chest strap, out of date app). I personally found it a little trickier to use and interpret than Elite HRV, which is why it's on this list.
• Gyroscope, Free with in-app subscription: This life-tracker got high marks from a number of my pals, but it doesn't do HRV tracking in its own right, just showcases your SDNN measurements from any Apple Watch readings.
• HRV Score, $3.99: I tried but was unimpressed by Alex Olsson's $3.99 HRV Score, which uses your Apple Watch's sensors to record HRV measurements; unfortunately, I couldn't get the app to take a reading without crashing.

Questions/suggestions?

Have a different HRV app I should check out? Prefer one over the other? Let me know in the comments.

With watchOS 4, Apple introduced a number of new heart rate metrics for the Apple Watch to track, including one called the HRV (Heart Rate Variability) average.

In short, tracking your HRV allows you to learn more about your body's autonomic nervous system — these are your internal flight/flight and rest/digest triggers, which help manage your stress throughout the day. You can learn more about why it's an interesting measurement in a deep dive I did on the subject for iMore, but what about tracking it on your Apple Watch? It's not quite as straightforward as opening the Heart Rate app (though it is pretty simple once you know where to go).

Heart Rate Variability (HRV): What is it, and why does the Apple Watch track it?

• How your Apple Watch monitors HRV
• How to manually monitor your HRV on Apple Watch

How your Apple Watch monitors HRV

When you first put your Apple Watch on for the day, you'll trigger an HRV morning reading; the wearable monitors your heartbeat steadily for one minute, then uses under-the-hood calculations* to come up with your HRV average, displayed as ms (milliseconds) in the Health app for iPhone.

*Apple currently uses SDNN to track HRV in the Health app. This average is useful to get a basic idea of your nervous system's patterns, but Apple doesn't yet offer a more detailed look at any other time- or frequency-based HRV data (though it does store your beat-to-beat readings and timestamps).

You can also force an HRV reading at any time by starting a Breathe session on your Apple Watch, though there's no official way to check your readings afterward on the wearable itself —  you have to go to the Health app to view your HRV measurement.

How to manually monitor your HRV on Apple Watch

1. Get in a place where you can be still for a minute; sit straight up or lie down on your back.
2. Open the Breathe app on your Apple Watch.
3. Press Start.
4. Go through the Breathe session.

Once you've finished your Breathe session, you can view your HRV score on your iPhone.

1. Open the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Select the Health Data tab.
3. Tap on the Heart subsection.
4. Select Heart Rate Variability.

Here, you can view your HRV scores by Day, Week, Month, or Year. You can also tap on Show All Data to see your daily scores and beat-to-beat measurements.

Any questions?

Let us know in the comments.

Amidst the many improvements to Apple's heart rate measurements with iOS 11 and Apple Watch, Apple also introduced a new measurement called an HRV (Heart Rate Variability) average.

Measuring HRV has been around the medical and exercise community for decades, but it's only just starting to take root in the larger tech community as a popular metric for tracking your everyday wellness and fitness.

As an actively-training athlete, I was particularly curious about HRV values and how they could help me better build my training and taper my workouts, so I did a bit of digging to try and better understand it — and why Apple is starting to track this information.

Obvious disclaimer here: I'm not a scientist, doctor, nor health expert; if you're interested in learning more on this topic beyond this overview, you can find more information at the bottom of this post.

What exactly is HRV, and why do you want to measure it?

When you measure your heart with an Apple Watch or passive electric chest strap (like some of our best external heart rate monitors), the metric you'll see most commonly is your heart beat: You're tracking the number and speed of your heartbeats (the contraction and inflation of your cardiac muscle) to estimate how many beats will occur in 60 seconds, which your device then shows you in BPM (beats per minute).

Monitoring your BPM is useful for a number of reasons, including knowing your basic heart health and making sure you're pushing yourself hard enough (but not too hard) during a workout.

HRV (heart rate variability) is another heartbeat-based metric, but it's not focused on your heart health: Instead, HRV aims to give you a whole lot more information on how a key component of your body — your nervous system — is functioning at any given point.

So how do you measure HRV? In short, you track the time in between your heart beats in a given time period; this allows you to see how quickly your autonomic nervous system communicates with your heart. This data is one of the easiest ways for us to get information on how our body is doing on the whole, but it's a bit less straightforward than your standard heartbeat reading.

For one, HRV isn't a single number: The metric can encompass a grouping of time- and frequency-based tests, each with their own math behind them. To start, we'll look at the most common representation of HRV: average heart beat variation in milliseconds (the only value that Apple currently displays in the Health app).

When I first read about HRV, I figured you'd want to have a low average, as that would mean your heart would have a steady "beat beat beat," with little to no variation in pauses. If you were healthy, I figured 60BPM should equal (more or less) one beat per second.

In reality, it's the opposite: At rest, you should actually see high variability between your heartbeats. (In that same 60BPM example, that would shake out to having 0.7 seconds between some beats and 1.1 seconds between others; you'd still end up with 60 beats in a minute, but some of those beats can happen progressively faster or slower than others.)

This is because your nervous system is constantly adjusting to outside factors, whether they be caffeinated beverages, stress from being in a car, catching a cold, or even changes in your mental state as you watch a movie — if your brain doesn't tell your heart to adjust accordingly, the rest of your body may not get the blood it needs to work effectively.

Let's take sprinting: When you start moving from a standstill, your heart is probably near its resting rate (say, 60-70BPM). But once you go into a sprint, your nervous system has to very quickly adjust the rate that your heart pumps in order to help your legs, lungs, and body keep up.

Measuring heart rate variability lets us monitor the flexibility of our nervous system: Even when your body is at rest, a strong nervous system will adjust after each heartbeat, with millisecond variations between each.

A really helpful overview of HRV from Welltory.

HRV metrics help us track one of the most important parts of our body: Our autonomic nervous system (ANS). This is responsible for helping your brain and its control centers send signals to your heart, muscles, and glands; it helps regulate your stress, digestion, heart functions, and more. Inside the ANS, there are two mini-systems at work: The sympathetic (which regulates your "fight or flight" stress impulses) and parasympathetic (which regulates your energy and helps your body recover during rest periods).

In an ideal world, the two work in harmony to give you the energy you need and conserve it when you don't. A high heart rate variability (HRV) average, for instance, indicates that your parasympathetic system is doing its job helping your body recover and regulate.

But let's be honest: We don't always live in an ideal world. We can take on too much stress, recover poorly, drink, overtrain, and generally fail to take care of our body. When that happens, our sympathetic system is doing more work, leading to lower HRV readings and often higher BPM while at rest.

HRV lets us spy on the balance between your sympathetic and parasynthetic nervous system at any given moment, giving us a peek into how our body is recovering from illness, stress, or workouts. Like tracking your BPM, you need context, which means tracking it regularly and comparing readings with your activities.

Tip: Your variability average is only the tip of the HRV-tracking iceberg; if you use a third-party app on your iPhone and an external heart rate monitor (or camera-based monitor), you can access more detailed metrics to help you better understand how your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are working together.

Unlike BPM and blood pressure, there's no "healthy" or "unhealthy" general number for a high or low HRV average: It varies depending on the person, which means that if you're interested in tracking your nervous system, you need to regularly take heart measurements to get a good picture of what "high" and "low" values look like for you; ideally, you'd want to take HRV measurements in the morning when you first wake up, so that you can establish a baseline.

At a basic level, you can see how well your body is recovering from exercise, illness, or general stress. If you're having a crazy week at work and your HRV average is lower than normal each morning, it can indicate that your body needs more rest and relaxation to balance out your stress.

What that rest looks like varies between people: hanging out with friends can help raise your parasympathetic system and your HRV average, as can engaging in activities you enjoy, deep breathing, yoga, meditation, and regular resting periods.

As an athlete, I find HRV monitoring particularly useful because it can help me tailor my workout programs: If my HRV average is too low the night after a hard workout or skate, I know I pushed myself too hard and will take it easy until my average stabilizes back to my baseline. It allows me to work hard when I know my body's ready for it, but take breaks when I need to so that I can prevent overtraining.

You can also use your HRV baseline to figure out when you prefer exercising, how certain food affects your body, when you start to get sick, and a lot more — it's all about context.

So how do you calculate your HRV average and other metrics?

Thankfully, you don't have to do all the complicated math yourself: There are multiple different wearables available that measure your heart and your HRV, including:

• EKGs (expensive)
• passive electric monitors like the Polar heart strap
• the Apple Watch
• Other photoplethysmography techniques (like camera-based heartbeat readings)

These different hardware options all have different software associated with them: Most HRV apps can produce your variation average (a time-based datapoint), but many programs also offer more thorough time- and frequency-based HRV metrics.

Apple currently records HRV averages in your iPhone's Health app through Apple Watch readings (as well as any third-party apps that have chosen to write data to the repository). When you first put your Apple Watch on for the day, you'll trigger an HRV morning reading; the wearable monitors your heartbeat steadily for one minute, then uses under-the-hood calculations* to come up with your HRV average, displayed as ms (milliseconds) in the Health app for iPhone.

*Apple currently uses SDNN to track HRV in the Health app; it doesn't gather any other HRV data from your Apple Watch, nor does it allow third-party HRV apps to write anything but SDNN data to the Health app.

While Apple's average is useful to get a basic idea of your HRV patterns, the company doesn't yet offer you a more detailed look at any other time- or frequency-based HRV data (though it does store your beat-to-beat readings and timestamps). There's also no obvious way to force an HRV reading outside of the Apple Watch's automated morning and evening readings; starting a Breathe session on your Apple Watch will record the right data, but it's not noted anywhere for users curious about their HRV data and getting subsequent readings.

Elite HRV (a mainstay in the HRV-tracking space) had this to say about why its app doesn't yet support using the Apple Watch for HRV data:

Marco Altini, creator of HRV4Training, had similar things to say about why their app doesn't support the Apple Watch's metrics:

It may well be that Apple is currently only interested in HRV tracking to help users with the Breathe app, or that it doesn't yet think the Apple Watch hardware is accurate enough to give deeper-dive measurements, but I'm excited to see it in the Health app nonetheless — it's a good start from Apple at tracking one of the more-fascinating wellness statistics out there, and I hope we see them add more HRV values as time goes on.

If you want more information than simple HRV averages, there are several other apps that can take and analyze HRV, but you may need to pick up an external heart monitor to use them effectively.

The friendliest app out there for HRV tracking that I've found is Welltory; it breaks down your HRV results into easily-readable areas like Performance (which represents your average HRV), Energy (how your parasympathetic function is working), and Stress (same for the sympathetic). For basic measurements, you don't even need a proper passive electric chest strap — you can use your iPhone's rear camera instead (though this may produce a higher margin of error).

The app is free to use for these basic measurements; upgrade to a paid subscription, however, and you can access more detailed measurements from your HRV calculation (including your LF/HF, VLF, SDNN, and more).

It's worth noting given all the privacy and political concerns of late that Welltory began as a Russian startup. That said, it's currently based out of NY and has a pretty straight-forward privacy policy. Given that the data is analyzed on Welltory's servers, however, I wanted to mention it.

HRV4Training also lets you use either your iPhone's rear camera or an external heart monitor to measure your HRV, but the $8.99 app is designed specifically for the athletic crowd: It tracks the same metrics as Welltory, but uses a 30-day rolling scale to provide suggestions about your baseline and how you should train from day to day. (It is a little buggy on the UI side when running on my iPhone X, but I'm not sure if that's the iPhone model or the app as a whole at fault.)

The aforementioned Elite HRV app has a ton of scientific data behind it and many happy users, but you'll need an external heart rate monitor and a $4.99 in-app purchase to take full advantage of it. The app's UI also hasn't yet been updated for iPhone X.

The $13.99 SweetBeat HRV uses slightly different formulas than Elite HRV, but has the same pros (happy users, lots of data) and cons (older, requires a chest strap, out of date app).

I tried but was unimpressed by Alex Olsson's $3.99 HRV Score, which uses your Apple Watch to track HRV measurements; unfortunately, I couldn't get the app to take a reading without crashing.

More on HRV

Want to read more about HRV? Here are some more in-depth resources that talk about the science behind it, formulas, and some suggestions on how to use it.

• What Is Heart Rate Variability And What You Can Learn From It
• Heart Rate Variability 101
• Heart Rate Variability: a (deep) primer
• Everything You Need To Know About Heart Rate Variability Testing
• A Deep Dive Into HRV: The Myths & Truths of Heart Rate Variability Testing

Over the past few years, the Health app — and all the fitness data within — has become more and more important to everyday iPhone users. If you have an Apple Watch, you'll have months (and possibly years) of heartbeat and activity information in there, along with any app-submitted data, sleep tracking, step-tracking, and more.

Backing up that data is important from a preservation aspect — after all, you don't want to spend all that time collecting data only to lose it. But Apple also cares about keeping it safe from prying eyes. It's why, when Apple first launched the Health app, you could only back up your Health data via a password-encrypted iTunes backup.

As Apple's cloud-side encryption improved, the company added encrypted iCloud backups to the mix. And if your iPhone runs iOS 11 or later, you can instead choose to actively sync your health data with iCloud, instead.

How Health iCloud syncing is different from a backup

When you back up your iPhone via iCloud, you'll make a backup of whatever you've done since your last backup. This includes changes to contacts, Health data, email messages, apps and their home screen positioning, and more. The information in this backup is only available to your current device or when you restore a new device with the backup, however, and requires logging into your Apple ID. You can back up automatically every night when plugged in and connected to Wi-Fi, or manually make a backup through the Settings app.

In contrast, iCloud sync happens automatically, and does so multiple times throughout the day. We already use iCloud to sync things like keychain passwords, Apple Notes, Safari bookmarks, HomeKit preferences, non-credit card Wallet passes, Calendar info, and the like; all of these options can be enabled or disabled on a feature-by-feature basis from the iCloud screen in your Settings app on each device.

If you're running iOS 11 or later you now have a Health toggle in the iCloud settings screen that you can enable or disable. Whenever the toggle is enabled and you're online, your iPhone will encrypt and sync Health data to iCloud, as well as any devices that can read Health data that are connected to your account. Have two iPhones with different backups? With iCloud sync, you can now sync data between them.

There is one bit worth noting here: If you enable Health sync for iCloud, your health data will no longer be stored in your regular iPhone backup. This shouldn't be a problem, but for safety's sake: If you plan to stop using iCloud sync, make sure you wait for your health information to populate to your iPhone, then make a full backup to make sure you have your data safely stored.

• Health data (heart rate information, sleep tracking, step counts, elevation, etc)
• Sources and connected devices
• Medical ID
• Activity Rings
• Workouts
• Stand Hours
• Activity achievements

Why should I use Health iCloud sync instead of a backup?

In short, iCloud sync keeps your Health data backed up across devices, rather than limiting it to a single iPhone; if you forget to back up your iPhone for a week and then drown it on a camping trip, you'd lose all of that health data. In contrast, as long as you had iCloud sync enabled and some form of internet, you'd still have all that data ready to sync to a new iPhone when you got home.

The other big reason for using iCloud sync: It lets you move your health and activity data without having to restore a device from backup. It's a big win for the clean install iPhone crowd, but it's also nice for folks like me, who frequently test multiple devices — and multiple Apple Watches — and have lost data in the past because I could only sync my Health data to one repository.

And, like iCloud Keychain and Messages, your Health data is completely encrypted: Apple can't see if you missed your Activity goal for the day, nor does the company really want to. (That's what the Apple Watch guilt-trip notifications are for.)

Why shouldn't I use iCloud sync for Health?

I'm pretty excited about iCloud sync for Health, but there are a couple of edge-case issues where you wouldn't want to immediately enable it in iOS 11.

First of all, please don't do this. Instead, create a Family Sharing account and make separate IDs for your family. iCloud has too much individual data at this point to make sense of sharing an individual account.

But that said, if you're hellbent on sharing the same account for multiple people, each person's Health data from their respective device is going to get smushed together and look really weird.

Your Health data won't sync to iOS 10 devices, so you don't want to set up iCloud Health sync if you won't actually get to take advantage of it.

While this is an entirely valid concern, Apple's security system has never been broken, and its multi-key encryption system would require a potential hacker to have physical access to your phone to decrypt your data (in addition to breaking Apple's private keys). Apple will likely have more information on how this works when it updates its iOS security guide, but if you're still concerned about the safety of your data, you can always make encrypted backups to iTunes instead.

How to set up iCloud sync for Health on your iPhone

Setting up health syncing on your iPhone is pretty straightforward once you're running iOS 11.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap the Apple ID banner at the top of the screen.
3. Tap iCloud.
4. Tap the toggle next to Health to enable it.

One big note: If you plan to move to a new iPhone without restoring from backup, make absolutely sure your old iPhone has the Health toggle turned on and has synced. Otherwise, you risk not having your Health data transfer over.

Other questions about Health syncing in iOS 11?

Let us know below!

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this article.

iOS 10's Health app is a great way to keep track of a variety of health stats, whether you're tracking activity or your sleep patterns. What's more, you can customize Health to fit your exact needs. Add calories from a meal, a quick cat nap, and much more. You can even create a medical identification card with all of your essential information in case of emergencies.

Follow this guide to find out how you can take control of Health in iOS 10.

• How to add or change health data
• How to change units
•  How to delete health data 
• How to manage data access permissions
•  How to remove a data source 
•  How to create a Medical ID 
•  How to update your Medical ID 

How to add or change health data

Some data, like your step count, is automatically tracked thanks to the on-board sensors in your iPhone; other information, like your heart rate, requires an external device (like an Apple Watch) to automatically log that data. There is a third option, however: You can manually add or change your health data from the Health app itself.

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Choose a category.
3. Select the subject, such as Caffeine or Sleep Analysis, for which you wish to add data.

4. Tap the '+' button in the top-right corner
5. Choose the starting and ending times for the activity, and set any other relevant data, such as how many calories you burned or the amount of caffeine you ingested.
6. Tap Add.

How to change display units

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Choose a category.
3. Select the subject, such as Active Energy, whose display units you would like to change.

4. Tap Unit.
5. Choose from the available display options. In the case of Active Energy, for instance, select either kilocalories (kcal) or kilojoules (kJ).

How to delete data from the Health app

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Choose a category.
3. Select the subject, such as Active Energy or Sleep Analysis, from which you wish to remove data.

4. Tap Show All Data.
5. Find the data that you want to remove and tap Edit.
6. When deleting select pieces of data, tap the subtraction symbol in the red circle next to the data point or points you wish to remove.

7. Tap Delete.
8. If you wish to remove all of a subject's data, tap Delete All.

How to manage data access permissions

These permissions let the Health app know which apps can read and write data to this category.

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Choose a category.
3. Select the subject, such as Active Energy or Sleep Analysis, where you want to temporarily disable data recording from an app.

4. Tap Data Sources & Access.
5. Under Apps Allowed to Read Data, find the app for which you wish to revoke permissions, and flip its switch to the 'off' position.

How to remove a data source from your Health graph

If you don't want a data source to show up in your Health grab, you can disable it.

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Choose a category.
3. Select the subject, such as Active Energy or Sleep Analysis, from which you wish to remove a data source.

4. Tap Data Sources & Access.
5. Tap Edit.
6. Under Data Sources, find the data source you wish to remove and tap it. The check next to its name should disappear, and "Inactive" should appear under the source's name.

How to create your Medical ID

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap Medical ID.
3. Tap Create Medical ID.

4. Fill out each of the applicable sections with things like your age, height, weight, and blood type.
5. Hit Done.

How to update your Medical ID

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap Medical ID.
3. Hit Edit.

4. Add or remove your new information, such as a medical condition or new emergency contact.
5. Tap Done.

Questions?

Let us know in the comments.

The Health app for iPhone lets you compile data from many of your most-used health apps so that you have a single view all of your health info, be it miles cycled, hours slept, or flights of stairs climbed. What's more, depending on your privacy settings, you can sync from Health to any other app, and back, so everything stays up to date and you stay on top of your fitness and medical data!

• How to navigate the Dashboard
• How to show health data on the Dashboard
• How to discover health apps
• How to enable the viewing of your Medical ID in an emergency
• How to view your Medical ID in an emergency

How to navigate the Dashboard

Health comes built into the iPhone operating system, so there's no separate app to download and install. All you have to do is launch it and get started.

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap the Dashboard button — it looks like a graph.
3. Tap the time period of your choice to see information for that period:
   • Day
   • Week
   • Month
   • Year

4. Swipe up and down to view your health categories.
5. Tap a health category to see more information.

How to show health data on the Dashboard

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap Health Data at the bottom of the screen — it appears as a folder emblazoned with a heart.
3. Tap the category you'd like to display on the Dashboard. In this example we chose Active Energy.
4. Toggle the Show on Dashboard switch to on. Active Energy will now show on the Dashboard.

How to discover health apps

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap Health Data at the bottom of the screen — it appears as a folder emblazoned with a heart.
3. Tap All.

4. Tap a category. For this example we chose Active Energy.
5. Swipe up to find suggested apps for tracking this category.
6. Tap the desired app to open in the App Store and download.

How to enable the viewing of your Medical ID in an emergency

1. Launch the Health app from your Home screen.
2. Tap Medical ID.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Toggle the Show When Locked switch to on.

During its Spring 2016 event, Apple took some time to provide an update on how its Health data is affecting the lives of many. Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, stated that the Parkinson's study became the largest in history in less than 24 hours. The Parkinson's app could help track per-patient data Mount Sinai asthma app got participants from all 50 states, allowing them to collect data from around the country. Massachusetts General Hospital got enough data that they were able to determine that sub-types of Type 2 Diabetes existed.

ResearchKit is also powering the team at Duke while creating an at-home tool to help in diagnosing autism by using the front-facing camera and algorithms to analyze emotional responses of children. The Epi Watch app uses the Apple Watch to gather data during seizures, which then used data to develop a seizure detector alert app.

Now, Apple has announced CareKit, a new way to empower people with data about their health. Some of the initial launch partners include Rochester General Hospital, UCSF, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, PDCNY. Standford Medicine, Emory Healthcare. An example of a Care Kit app from Texas Medical Center is an app that allows patients to record recovery data and the plan can easily be updated by a physician remotely. Apple notes that "nothing is more sensitive than your health data," and will ensure that all the data is kept safe. CareKit will be open source just like ResearchKit when it is made available in April.

Press releases

Apple Announces Advancements to ResearchKit

Studies Incorporate Genetic Data for Postpartum Depression, Asthma & Cardiovascular Disease

CUPERTINO, California — March 21, 2016 — Apple® today announced advancements to the open source ResearchKit™ framework that bring genetic data and a series of medical tests typically conducted in an exam room to iPhone® apps. Medical researchers are adopting these new features to design targeted studies for diseases and conditions that affect billions of people around the world and to gather more specific types of data from participants.

"The response to ResearchKit has been fantastic. Virtually overnight, many ResearchKit studies became the largest in history and researchers are gaining insights and making discoveries that weren't possible before," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "Medical researchers around the world continue to use iPhone to transform what we know about complex diseases, and with continued support from the open source community, the opportunities for iPhone in medical research are endless."

ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research by helping doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants anywhere in the world using iPhone apps. Participants enrolled in these app-based studies can review an interactive informed consent process, easily complete active tasks or submit survey responses, and choose how their health data is shared with researchers, making contributions to medical research easier than ever.

By delivering ResearchKit as open source, any developer can quickly design a research study for iPhone. They can also build on the available software code and contribute their tasks back to the community to help other researchers do more with the framework. Using a new module just released to the open source community, researchers are now able to incorporate genetic data into their studies in a seamless, simple and low cost way. Designed by 23andMe, the module allows study participants to easily contribute their genetic data to medical research. Researchers are also working with the National Institute of Mental Health to deliver "spit kits" to study participants based on a series of survey results.

"There's so much we still need to learn about postpartum depression and it may be DNA that provides the key to better understanding why some women experience symptoms and others do not," said Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program at the UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders. "With ResearchKit, and now the ability to incorporate genetic data, we're able to engage women with postpartum depression from a wide geographic and demographic range and can analyze the genomic signature of postpartum depression to help us find more effective treatments."

"Collecting this type of information will help researchers determine genomic indicators for specific diseases and conditions," said Eric Schadt, PhD, the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Founding Director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology. "Take asthma, for example. ResearchKit is allowing us to study this population more broadly than ever before and through the large amounts of data we're able to gather from iPhone, we're understanding how factors like environment, geography and genes influence one's disease and response to treatment."

ResearchKit studies incorporating genetic data: Postpartum Depression: PPD Act is a new app-based study that will use genetic testing to better understand why some women are impacted by postpartum depression by examining the genetic makeup of those with the condition. Led by the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the international Postpartum Depression: Action Towards Causes and Treatment Consortium, PPD Act will offer study participants access to a "spit kit" from the National Institute of Mental Health. Cardiovascular Disease: Developed by Stanford Medicine, the MyHeart Counts app will use genetic data from existing 23andMe customers to help determine predisposition to heart conditions and measure how a participant's activity and lifestyle relate to cardiovascular health. By studying these relationships on a broad scale, researchers hope to be able to better understand how to keep hearts healthy. Asthma: The Asthma Health app, designed to track symptom patterns in an individual and identify potential triggers for these symptoms, will use genetic data from 23andMe customers to help researchers better understand ways to personalize asthma treatment. Asthma Health is designed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions.

Researchers continue to adapt ResearchKit and build on the framework by contributing new modules that bring exam room medical tests to iPhone apps. Key contributions include the ability to study tone audiometry; measure reaction time through delivery of a known stimulus to a known response; assess the speed of information processing and working memory; use the mathematical puzzle Tower of Hanoi for cognition studies; and conduct a timed walk test.

ResearchKit studies continue to expand internationally and are available in Australia, Austria, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the US. ResearchKit apps are available on the App Store® for iPhone 5 and later, and the latest generation of iPod touch®.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple's four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple's 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Apple Advances Health Apps with CareKit

New Software Framework Helps Developers Empower People to Take a More Active Role in their Health

CUPERTINO, California — March 21, 2016 — Apple® today announced CareKit™, a new software framework designed to help developers enable people to actively manage their own medical conditions. iPhone® apps using CareKit make it easier for individuals to keep track of care plans and monitor symptoms and medication; providing insights that help people better understand their own health. With the ability to share information with doctors, nurses or family members, CareKit apps help people take a more active role in their health.

"We're thrilled with the profound impact ResearchKit has already had on the pace and scale of conducting medical research, and have realized that many of the same principles could help with individual care," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "We believe that giving individuals the tools to understand what is happening with their health is incredibly powerful, and apps designed using CareKit make this a reality by empowering people to take a more active role in their care."

CareKit will be released as an open source framework next month allowing the developer community to continue building on the first four modules designed by Apple, that include: * Care Card helps people track their individual care plans and action items, such as taking medication or completing physical therapy exercises. Activities can automatically be tracked and entered using sensors in Apple Watch® or iPhone; * Symptom and Measurement Tracker lets users easily record their symptoms and how they're feeling, like monitoring temperature for possible infections or measuring pain or fatigue. Progress updates could include simple surveys, photos that capture the progression of a wound or activities calculated by using the iPhone's accelerometer and gyroscope, like quantifying range of motion; * Insight Dashboard maps symptoms against the action items in the Care Card to easily show how treatments are working; and * Connect makes it easy for people to share information and communicate with doctors, care teams or family members about their health and any change in condition.

"With ResearchKit, we quickly realized the power of mobile apps for running inexpensive, high-quality clinical studies with unprecedented reach," said Ray Dorsey, MD, David M. Levy Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "We hope that CareKit will help us close the gap between our research findings and how we care for our Parkinson's patients day-to-day. It's opening up a whole new opportunity for the democratization of research and medicine."

Developers of health and wellness apps are excited to build these CareKit modules into apps for Parkinson's patients, post-surgery progress, home health monitoring, diabetes management, mental health and maternal health. * Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester are using CareKit to turn the mPower ResearchKit™ study into a valuable tool to help better inform patients about their condition and care providers about treatment. * The Texas Medical Center is designing apps to guide and support care pathways for its 8 million patients to improve their health through enhanced connectivity with their care teams. * Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will provide patients with more insight into their own chronic care management through home health monitoring devices that securely store data in HealthKit™. * One Drop is empowering people with a better approach to managing their diabetes. * Start, by Iodine, helps people on antidepressants understand if their medication is working for them or not, and helps their doctors deliver more informed care. * Glow, Inc. will incorporate CareKit modules into its pregnancy app, Glow Nurture, to guide women through a healthier pregnancy.

For more information, visit www.apple.com/carekit.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple's four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple's 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Ochsner Heath System in Louisiana has announced a new initiative called "Optimal Hospital," through which the group will leverage a mix of Apple devices and specialized apps to help physicians and nurses better address patient needs.

Ochsner specifically highlights three apps that make up Optimal Hospital. Doctors can take advantage of Epic Haiku on the iPhone or Apple Watch to quickly access patient lists and conditions, as well as admissions and discharges, while moving around the hospital. Similarly, doctors can stay up to speed with test results and reports with the Epic Canto app on iPad.

Nurses can also use the Epic Rover app for iPhone to scan the barcode on a patient's wristband to quickly verify the patient's identity and monitor their medication dosage. Ochsner says it is even supplying patients with iPads so they can keep track of their lab results, treatment schedules and more through a dedicated MyChart Bedside app.

The net effect of the Optimal Hospital initiative, Ochsner says, will be that speed, accuracy and patient safety should all be improved with quick access to beneficial apps on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

Press Release

Ochsner Health System Continues to Transform Healthcare With "Optimal Hospital"

Innovative program uses Apple Watch, iPad and iPhone to introduce a new model for care as a way to manage efficiencies in hospital care

NEW ORLEANS – Ochsner Health System continues to transform healthcare using the latest advancements from Apple. A national leader in healthcare innovation and no stranger to using iOS devices, Epic apps and Apple's HealthKit to better care for patients, Ochsner has a continued commitment to improving outcomes for patients suffering from chronic disease and providing a better patient healthcare experience in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.

Since launching the Digital Medicine Program last year, Ochsner has been continuously monitoring clinic patients with uncontrolled blood pressure and proactively engaging them to modify behaviors and, when needed, adjust medications. Utilizing Epic (Ochsner's Electronic Medical Record), Apple HealthKit and Apple Watch, patients enrolled in this outpatient program (watch video here) receive feedback from clinicians about important aspects of their care. This could include potential side effects once a new medication is prescribed, renewal notification for prescriptions and medications and lifestyle modification reminders to ensure good blood pressure control is attained.

One year later, groundbreaking data confirms this new virtual delivery model is working by delivering significantly better health outcomes, patient satisfaction and patient engagement.

"What we've seen is that two-thirds of our patients who previously experienced uncontrolled blood pressure are now in control within 90 days of enrolling in the program," said Richard Milani, MD, Clinical Transformation Officer, Ochsner Health System, and Chief Medical Officer, innovationOchsner. "We've seen higher levels of patient satisfaction using iOS devices over the more traditional methods of care and, overall, the patients are more engaged in their healthcare decisions. These are important factors which have a crucial effect on health outcomes in helping patients live more fulfilling lives."

Ochsner is committed to pioneering innovative solutions that pave the way for positive, disruptive change in healthcare. Last year, Ochsner formed innovationOchsner ("iO"), an innovation lab and accelerator whose mission is to re-imagine and revolutionize the experience and delivery of healthcare in a way that creates new value. iO's work is focused on solving healthcare's most pressing problems by using technology and data to create precision-focused, patient-centered solutions that dramatically enhance quality and access, decrease cost, and improve patient satisfaction and engagement as well as caregiver efficiency.

Now, through iO, Ochsner is expanding its innovative programs into the inpatient setting through a new initiative called "Optimal Hospital." Optimal Hospital uses a new wave of online tools and iOS devices to improve workflow efficiencies in managing patient care, initiating more frequent and dynamic patient interaction.

This new inpatient experience will improve the hospital experience for patients and providers alike. For physicians, who often are moving quickly between hospital buildings and floors making patient rounds, Optimal Hospital allows for a very mobile and more efficient experience– the moment Ochsner physicians arrive at the hospital, they can now use the Epic Haiku app on iPhone or Apple Watch to instantly review patients lists, their conditions, new hospital admissions or discharges and retrieve patient records

Utilizing the Epic Canto app on iPad, physicians can easily evaluate test results, current data or trending reports so they can quickly and easily intervene.

Nurses are also optimizing innovative apps such as Epic Rover on iPhone to scan barcodes on patient wristbands to correctly ensure the patient's identity and current medication dosage needs in a secure way.

Ochsner has also added the Sotera Wireless ViSi Mobile System, a wearable monitor that continuously measures and records a patient's vital signs, whether the patient is in or out of bed or in transport. Results are seamlessly linked into Epic as well as the care teams' iPhones to improve patient safety, anticipate problems and prevent adverse events.

While these enabled tools are beneficial to clinicians, they are centered on improving outcomes and the experience of the patient. With an Ochsner-supplied iPad, patients will have greater insight into their hospital experience through the MyChart Bedside app. While they are hospitalized, they can view exam and treatment schedules, see lab results, medications and vitals, and even receive additional education on their condition.

"Our goal is to empower our patients so that they are more informed and fundamentally involved in their own healthcare, whether it is through the inpatient or outpatient experience," reinforces Milani. "Optimal Hospital is designed to optimize processes, patient assessment and outcome predication while also improving safety, quality and the overall patient experience."

"Healthcare is undergoing the biggest transformation in its history. The needs of the population are changing and now we have new technologies to meet the needs of people. At Ochsner, we are doing everything we can to engage patients and improve lives through innovative platforms," notes Milani. "We will continue to embrace new technology and become a key player in the digital healthcare landscape to better meet the needs of our patients and provide a more effective and efficient workflow for our medical staff."

To allow Health to collect the data from App Store apps, however, you'll need to grant those apps permission to read and/or write to Health. That way, Health can keep your information absolutely private and in silos if that's what you want, but it can also act as a central repository and exchange for all your data. So, if you switch between fitness trackers, smartwatches, or apps, you don't have to start over from scratch each time. All your data goes with you.

Note: Not all fitness-releated App Store apps support HealthKit, the framework that interfaces with Apple's Health app. If an app doesn't support HealthKit, you can't use it with Health.

What "read" and "write" access mean for Health

Giving an app access to Read data means that you're okay with that app pulling data that already exists in the Health app into its own app. For example, a step tracker could pull your daily step count history from Health and populate its own graphs with it, so you can keep going write where you left off.

Giving an app access to Write data means you give it permission to write new data to the Health app. For example, a step tracker to could push its own step count back to the Health app.

For medical apps, due to privacy concerns, you may want to be very careful about granting read or write access to Health. For fitness trackers, you may find privacy concerns negligible and granting read or write access highly convenient.

How to control which apps can read and write data in the Health app

1. Launch the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on Sources in the bottom navigation.
3. The Apps section contains a list of all the apps you have installed that support Health integration. Tap on the one you want to set.
4. Toggle On or Off the kinds of data you'd like that app to be able to control.

Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised Mad Money anchor Jim Cramer on the air Thursday with a sweet tenth anniversary wish for the show, which turned into a lively seven-minute conversation about ResearchKit, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch. Below is a transcript of their conversation.

Cramer: Let's take a call: go to Tim in California. Tim.

Cook: Hey Jim, I'm calling from Cupertino, California, to be exact. This is Tim Cook at Apple, and I want to congratulate you on ten great years of Mad Money.

Cramer: Wha — wow! That's even cooler. I want to congratulate you for running the greatest company on Earth and for creating such amazing wealth and the best products on Earth — for everybody! You have done a remarkable job, Tim, I am honored that you're calling in.

Cook: It's the great team here that does it. Jim, you've been a champion for American innovation, and of course Apple feels the same way, and we love the fact that you highlight innovation as the centerpiece of your show.

Cramer: Well, you know what, you make us proud and you do such incredible, incredible innovation yourself, every time. You know I am totally involved with what you're doing for the phone, but of course for the watch, and for the ResearchKit! I basically am looking at your company as being the health company of the future. I'm looking at you as being the credit card company of the future. They really are the great growth areas that you're in charge of, Tim.

Cook: You know, it's really incredible. Since, uh, in the first 24 hours of ResearchKit, we've had 11,000 people sign up for a study in cardiovascular disease through Stanford University's app. And, to put that in perspective, Stanford has told us that it would have taken normally 50 medical centers an entire year to sign up that many participants.

So ResearchKit is an absolute gamechanger.

Cramer: I think that this is the most — but people don't understand why you absolutely have to have this device [the Watch], which is why I can't — I can't wait until it comes out.

I also am focused on the fact, Tim, that your product for retail, uh, with Apple Pay, is by far the best. I have to believe that given the banks, given Visa, given MasterCard, it's perfectly realistic to believe that the customers will demand it from every major retailer in the world. Do you think I'm right?

Cook: I totally think you're right. You said last year, I think, when it first came out, that it would take the country by storm, and it's doing it. We've already got 700,000 locations accepting Apple Pay, and by the way, we really want to add your Bar San Miguel to the list.

Cramer: Tim! [laughing] Tim! You're too much!

Cook: And if you do that, I am joining you there for dinner.

Cramer: You are too much! [laughing] Tim! I've gotta ask you, Tim. We always hear that the company, it's so big, whatever. I mean, I think that you're — I look at your company, and I think it's not that expensive, you've got the best balance sheet in the world — country, company, doesn't matter.

You know my mantra: People should own Apple, not trade it. D'you think that, eventually, people will understand what I'm talking about?

Cook: I think eventually they will, yes. I mean, y'know, for people that have owned the stock for ten years or so, our stock price ten years ago when you started Mad Money was less than six dollars on a split adjusted basis. And so you can bet that those people are extremely happy right now.

Cramer: Well, everyone's thrilled with what you've done. When you come to work every day, I know you come in hungry — the competition, are you feeling like that you've kind of left it behind, or are you just every day, do you come in and say, "Someone might have a better mousetrap"?

Cook: We're always paranoid. We live paranoid, and we always want the very best products, and if we're not beating someone else, we're trying to beat the thing that we have currently shipping. Everybody here lives on the edge.

Cramer: Do you think — well, do you think that... y'know, people are worried about the world, people worry about Europe, people worry about currency. Are we being, are those just the kinds of things that Wall Street worries about, and if you're at home, or you're watching, you own a hundred shares of Apple, you should just be thinking that Tim Cook and the team are ready for pretty much anything the world might throw at us?

Cook: Currency's clearly a problem, but frankly the best companies will figure out a way to manage it.

Cramer: And I regard your company with the highest ideals and the greatest manufacturing. I know every day when you come to work I feel you must think that you have a stewardship you've got to fulfill because of Steve Jobs. I want you to know that we — that you have far exceeded what ever — anyone, I think, could have done, but you still walk in his footsteps. How do you feel about the legacy?

Cook: You know, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about Steve, and he is still the core part of Apple, his DNA is deep in the company. His office is still next to mine with his name on the door.

And the values that he placed in here, and sort of the spirit — that we are here to make the very best products in the world that enrich people's lives — that is still the centerpiece of this company.

Cramer: And do you think that there are — I know that from Walter Isaacson's book, that there really, that the pipeline that you're using really, is, while it definitely had good things from Steve, a lot of these devices are yours and your team's, aren't they?

Cook: Oh, absolutely, yes. We're now, y'know, quite a ways away from, unfortunately, his passing, and so there's uh, there's been a lot of things that have started in creation after his passing.

Cramer: Let me ask you about where you think things are going — I know that the car, the home — do you think of them as connectivity/social mobile cloud connectivity? Do you feel as though these are the next frontiers, or is there a frontier that I'm missing, I'm not thinking big enough?

Cook: Well, I think that those are two big ones that you've talked about. I think that Health may be the biggest one of all, because for years, people have depended on strictly someone else to determine their health. And now these devices — in essence — empower people to manage and track their own health and fitness. And so I think that market is probably significantly underestimated.

Cramer: Well, let's go there, because I know my cardiologist, well, he's working on the Stanford project, knows about it, and told me that it's within our lifetime that we will have your watch, and your watch will show whether my blood pressure spiked — which it did, by the way, when you called, because I had no idea you were calling.

But we will have, from your watch, diabetes, maybe blood pressure, maybe even cancer detection because of the great access through you have, and because of the HealthKit — do you think this is within the realm of our lifetime?

Cook: Oh, I absolutely do. I absolutely do. And, y'know, discovering and curing some of these diseases will push our life expectancy much longer than it currently is, and we'll be able to enjoy Mad Money fifty years from now.

Cramer: [gasps] Aw, Tim. Well, Tim, I gotta tell ya, I am deeply honored that you called in, I think that you're the best we have, maybe the best that's ever been. Thanks so much, Tim Cook.

Cook: I really appreciate that, yeah, Jim. You say that "Some people want to make friends, I just want to make money," but let me tell you, you've made at least one friend in me, and I wish you all the best. So happy anniversary.

Apple has announced a new software framework specifically for medical research called ResearchKit. It will allow developers working with HealthKit to turn their apps into powerful diagnostic tools.

Highlighting the difficulties associated with medical research, such as small sample sizes, Apple created ResearchKit with a number of partners, including Oxford, Stanford Medicine, and University of Rochester. Users will be able to see correlations and trends right on their phone. You can determine what trials they are participating in, and what data you share.

Apple built a number of apps with their first ResearchKit partners. These include a Parkinson's research app, a tap test to measure tremors, and a walking test to measure your gait. They have also built apps for diabetes and cardiovascular research.

ResearchKit will be open source when it arrives in April. The first apps built with the framework will be available starting today.

For more on ResearchKit and Apple's other announcements today, be sure to follow along with our live blog of the event. You can get ahold of the first ResearchKit apps at the links below:

• MyHeart Counts - Download Now
• Parkinson mPower - Download Now
• GlucoSuccess - Download Now
• Share the Journey - Download Now
• Asthma Health by Mount Sinai - Download Now

Press release:

Apple Introduces ResearchKit, Giving Medical Researchers the Tools to Revolutionize Medical Studies

New Apps to Aid Research on Asthma, Breast Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes & Parkinson's Disease

SAN FRANCISCO—March 9, 2015—Apple® today announced ResearchKit™, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research, helping doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone® apps. World-class research institutions have already developed apps with ResearchKit for studies on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease.* Users decide if they want to participate in a study and how their data is shared.

"iOS apps already help millions of customers track and improve their health. With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research," said Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of Operations. "ResearchKit gives the scientific community access to a diverse, global population and more ways to collect data than ever before."

ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research. When granted permission by the user, apps can access data from the Health app such as weight, blood pressure, glucose levels and asthma inhaler use, which are measured by third-party devices and apps. HealthKit™ is a software framework Apple introduced with iOS 8 to provide developers the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. ResearchKit can also request from a user, access to the accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensors in iPhone to gain insight into a patient's gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory.

ResearchKit also makes it easier to recruit participants for large-scale studies, accessing a broad cross-section of the population—not just those within driving distance of an institution. Study participants can complete tasks or submit surveys right from the app, so researchers spend less time on paperwork and more time analyzing data. ResearchKit also enables researchers to present an interactive informed consent process. Users choose which studies to participate in and the data they want to provide in each study.

"We're excited to use these new ResearchKit tools from Apple to expand participant recruitment and quickly gather even more data through the simple use of an iPhone app. The data it will provide takes us one step closer to developing more personalized care," said Patricia Ganz, MD, professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Director of Cancer Prevention & Control Research at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Access to more diverse patient-reported health data will help us learn more about long-term aftereffects of cancer treatments and provide us with a better understanding of the breast cancer patient experience."

"When it comes to researching how we can better diagnose and prevent disease, numbers are everything. By using Apple's new ResearchKit framework, we're able to extend participation beyond our local community and capture significantly more data to help us understand how asthma works," said Eric Schadt, PhD, the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Founding Director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology. "Using iPhone's advanced sensors, we're able to better model an asthma patient's condition to enable us to deliver a more personalized, more precise treatment."

Developed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and LifeMap Solutions, the Asthma Health app is designed to facilitate asthma patient education and self-monitoring, promote positive behavioral changes and reinforce adherence to treatment plans according to current asthma guidelines. The study tracks symptom patterns in an individual and potential triggers for these exacerbations so that researchers can learn new ways to personalize asthma treatment.

The Share the Journey app, developed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Penn Medicine, Sage Bionetworks and UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is a research study that aims to understand why some breast cancer survivors recover faster than others, why their symptoms vary over time and what can be done to improve symptoms. Share the Journey will use surveys and sensor data on iPhone to collect and track fatigue, mood and cognitive changes, sleep disturbances and reduction in exercise.

Developed by Stanford Medicine, the MyHeart Counts app measures activity and uses risk factor and survey information to help researchers more accurately evaluate how a participant's activity and lifestyle relate to cardiovascular health. By studying these relationships on a broad scale, researchers will be able to understand better how to keep hearts healthier.

Massachusetts General Hospital developed the GlucoSuccess app to understand how various aspects of a person's life—diet, physical activity and medications—affect blood glucose levels. The app can also help participants identify how their food choices and activity relate to their best glucose levels, enabling them to clearly see correlations and take more active roles in their own well-being.

Developed by Sage Bionetworks and the University of Rochester, the Parkinson mPower app helps people living with Parkinson's disease track their symptoms by recording activities using sensors in iPhone. These activities include a memory game, finger tapping, speaking and walking. Activity and survey data from your phone are combined with data from many other participants to fuel Parkinson's research at a scale never before possible, making this the world's largest and most comprehensive study of this disease.

ResearchKit will be released as an open source framework next month, providing researchers with the ability to contribute to specific activity modules in the framework, like memory or gait testing, and share them with the global research community to further advance what we know about disease. For more information, visit www.apple.com/researchkit.

*ResearchKit apps are available on the App Store™ in the US at appstore.com/researchkit and will be rolling out to more countries in the future. iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the latest generation of iPod touch support ResearchKit apps.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly asked Apple to protect sensitive health data collected in the company's Health app on iPhones. According to reports, the FTC wants assurances that Apple won't share health data without the consent of owners.

News agency Reuters is reporting that both Apple and the FTC have met in the past few months to discuss health, with Apple emphasizing that it will not sell any collected health data:

An Apple spokeswoman said of the HealthKit platform and the Health app:

Source: Reuters

Health is the name for a new, built-in Apple app coming with iOS 8. It serves as both a repository for all the health-related data accumulated by your iPhone, your apps, and your accessories, and a dashboard to help you make better, more visual sense of it — a front-end for your quantified life. To facilitate all this, Apple is providing the HealthKit framework to developers and manufacturers. But how does it all work?

Health goals

The iPhone, primarily due to its highly mobile form factor and constant connectivity, has become a platform upon which a plethora of health and fitness apps and accessories are built. There's an Apple M7 motion coprocessor in the iPhone 5s (as well as the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini) to help collect activity data in as power-efficient a way as possible, but there are also a half-dozen or more fitness bands, as well as scales, blood pressure readers, blood sugar readers, sleep trackers, and more. There's even a Bluetooth fork.

In addition to apps that collect and track data, there are apps that let people manually enter data, like what they ate or how they felt at a specific time. There are apps that perform statistical analysis and provide graphical reports on data to help you better visualize specific metrics. There are apps from healthcare providers that let you send your information back to them to keep your records up-to-date.

Yet all that data about activity and sleep, diet and nutrition, mood and medication, vital signs and test results, all remains locked into the silos of all those individual apps.

Apple's Health app is designed to bring all that data together and to put it all in one, convenient, easy to refer to place. The hope is that the whole is more valuable than the sum of the silos, both for the human being using it, and for any medical professionals we expressly choose to be involved.

Health app

Rumor has it Health was originally conceptualized as HealthBook, a card-based interface similar to PassBook. However, the sheer number of sources that ultimately got included required a shift to a more scalable, list-based interface. So, Health.

Health is the front-end for HealthKit (see below). It includes a dashboard section, where you can place the readouts most important to you. For example, steps if you're working with a fitness tracker, or blood sugar, if you're diabetic. From here you can quickly and easily tab through day, week, month, and year views.

There's a Health Data section that lets you see everything, including All, Body Measurements, Fitness, Me, Nutrition, Results, Sleep, and Vitals. Body measurements include fat percentage, mass index, height, lean body mass, and weight. Fitness includes active calories, distance, flights climbed, NikeFuel, resting calories, and steps. Me lets you enter birthdate, biological sex, and blood type. Nutrition stores a long list of food, mineral, and vitamin types from biotin to zinc. Results stores a wide variety of test results from blood alcohol content to peripheral perfusion index. Vitals can keep track of blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate.

Each shows its graphical widget, the ability to show data, add data, share data, and a toggle to put them on or take them off the dashboard. If you want to change up what's in your dashboard, or want to drill down into data that you don't need often, but do need at that moment.

The Sources section lists the apps and accessories that are currently connected to Health via HealthKit. Over time you might grant permission for more and more apps and accessories to access your data, and it's helpful if there's a place where you can review all of that and decide what, if any, cleanup is needed.

The Medical ID section lets you create a Lock screen card that shows your birthdate, medical conditions, medical notes, allergies and reactions, medications, contacts, blood type, organ donor information, weight, and/or height. None of this is included in health data or shared with other apps, but will be presented to first responders who might need it to properly treat you in case of emergency.

It can be accessed when your iPhone is locked by tapping Emergency, then Medical ID. And yes, there are some privacy implications to making that information accessible from the Lock screen, but just like a Medicalert bracelet, each of us will have to weigh that against the risks and benefits, depending on our own, personal health situation.

HealthKit for developers

The HealthKit application programming interface (API) lets developers create, save, and ask for health and fitness data. The idea, again, is to have a single place where all developers can contribute towards a composite health profile, so that we can have a better, more complete, more holistic view of their health and fitness.

HealthKit is built into the Capabilities pane in Xcode, just like Game Center and Passbook. To help developers and users alike, Apple provides tools within HealthKit to make working with health and fitness data easier. For example, HKUnit can handle both simple and complex conversions between things like the metric system used in the vast majority of the world, and the imperial system used in the U.S. (and, of course, those who still measure their weight in stones in England...). There's also HKObjectType which can store everything from steps to blood pressure to respiratory rate to body temperature to vitamin levels to oxygen saturation to NikeFuel points, and much, much more.

All data stored in HealthKit is a subclass of HKObject, every one has a UUID that persists, and each keeps track of its source, be it an app or accessory. All data is also immutable, since going back in time and changing health or fitness data isn't the preferred methodology.

So, for example, a developer can create an HKObject to record something like body temperature, what the temperature was and when (either exactly for a moment in time or an average over a short period of time), and that it came from an ear thermometer.

To save or query for data from HealthKit, developers create an HKHealthStore. Saving data is straightforward. Developers create it and save it to their store. Querying for data has more options.

Developers can query both data they created and data already stored in HealthKit. However, to query data already stored in HealthKit, they have to get the user's permission first.

HKHealthKit can be directly queried for characteristic data like date of birth and blood type, that don't change over time. HKQuery is more heavy duty. With it, developers can set limits and sort orders, observe for changes in the database, and handle "anchors" (last pieces of data seen).

In addition to objects, developers can ask for statistics with HKStatistics. It includes sum, min, max, and average, and developers can get stats for all data or just for a particular source (app or accessory). Discreet types like height, weight, or blood pressure can return min, max, and average stats. Cumulative types like step count or calories burned can return sum.

To mitigate against calculations being "expensive" (consuming processor resources), HealthKit has developers tell them what they want ahead of time by specifying the type and stat. To mitigate against conflicting or duplicate sources, HealthKit will take the source preferred by the user. Developers, however, can also separate out the sources and do their own merges.

To keep things efficient, HKStatisticsCollection can be used to query for multiple statistics objects, split up into time "intervals". So, a developer could pull steps for every day during the last week and graph them.

All this means Apple has made it easy for developers to store health and fitness data in HealthKit, retrieve it, combine it with other data in HealthKit, and present it in an understandable manner for users.

To get started with HealthKit, Apple has provided information for app developers and accessory manufacturers, including WWDC session videos and sample fitness tracker code.

• HealthKit on Apple Developer portal

Health partners

On their own both Health and HealthKit are ambitious and impressive, but Apple has even higher goals in mind for both. Apple is hoping to revolutionize the healthcare industry.

They're partnering with the Mayo Clinic, for example, to integrate with HealthKit so, for example, a patient's blood pressure reading is automatically compared with expectations and, if anything is amiss, their doctor is immediately alerted for follow up.

Apple is also partnering with Epic Systems, which powers hospitals serving hundreds of millions of Americans, so that patients at many major institutions can use Health to faster and more conveniently share their information with their doctors.

Privacy

Health and HeathKit can make it incredibly convenient to store, retrieve, sync, and share health and fitness information. But as we all know, convenience is in perpetual conflict with security and privacy. A place where all of our data, from different apps and accessories, can get aggregated together and not only presented back to us, but to other apps and shared with healthcare professionals means the underlying system needs to be privacy-first.

It looks like that's exactly what Apple is doing with Health and HealthKit. Before an app can access any data in HealthKit it needs to get express permission. Likewise, before any data can be shared, we need to be the ones who initiate the sharing.

Because health data is incredibly sensitive, Apple goes above and beyond the usual permission system to allow us to authorize or deny access per object type. So, if an app only needs step data, we can only authorize step data and not give it access to anything else.

Read and write permissions are also kept separate per object type. That means we can let a step tracker save data to HealthKit, but not read any data saved there by other apps.

To manage all this, Apple is using authorization sheets — I know, right? — which, instead of a simple popup, provides granular yes/no toggles for each type of data sourced and shared.

Apple also won't let developers know if a specific type of information has been blocked, because that knowledge in and of itself can compromise privacy (i.e. blocking blood sugar might betray diabetes).

We'll have to wait until Health and HealthKit ship, and people test the system in the real world, but Apple's priorities seem well placed.

iPads in the waiting room

Health and HealthKit are currently iPhone only and aren't scheduled to ship as part of iOS 8 for the iPad. Hopefully that'll change in the near future. Some people, including the elderly and those with high level medical needs, might not have an iPhone but might have an iPad.

Passbook, introduced in iOS 6, has thus far remained iPhone only, and maybe that makes sense for a mobile payment system. Health, however, feels like it has a lot to offer iPad customers as well.

Bottom line

Health is best thought of like Passbook, which collects all your tickets and cards, or Photos, which holds all your pictures and videos, or, perhaps, or iCloud Drive which stores and shares all your files and documents. Health presents all the health and fitness data stored in HealthKit in one convenient, centralized location, and in a way that's easy to see and understand.

It remains to be seen whether the general public embraces Health, or if they'd be happier with an iPhone that spewed cheeseburgers from the Lightning port. However, I'm optimistic that Apple's optimistic. Worst case, Health being there, on the Home screen, with its cheery heart icon, will encourage people to think more about health and fitness. Best case, as any one element becomes important, the system itself will make it easy to add other elements in. And there's nothing better than virtuous cause becoming a virtuous cycle.

iOS 8 ships this fall. What do you think of Health and HealthKit, and will you be using them?

More of iOS 8: Explained

• Handoff in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Making and receiving phone calls on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• Sending and receiving SMS/MMS on iOS 8 for iPad and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• AirDrop and Instant Hotspot in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Explained
• QuickType keyboard in iOS 8: Explained
• Interactive notifications in iOS 8: Explained
• SceneKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Metal in iOS 8: Explained
• Widgets in iOS 8: Explained
• Share extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Action extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• Inter-app photo and video editing in iOS 8: Explained
• Custom keyboards in iOS 8: Explained
• Family Sharing on iOS 8: Explained
• iCloud Drive and Document Picker for iOS 8: Explained
• Document provider extensions in iOS 8: Explained
• TestFlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Apple Maps in iOS 8: Explained
• iMessage in iOS 8: Explained
• Photos in iOS 8: Explained
• Spotlight in iOS 8: Explained
• Health in iOS 8: Explained
• Touch ID in iOS 8: Explained
• HomeKit in iOS 8: Explained
• Adaptive UI in iOS 8: Explained
• Manual camera controls in iOS 8: Explained

If the iPhone and iPad have taught us anything it's that no one can predict what an Apple product will be like no matter how obvious it later seems in hindsight. Such will almost certainly be the case with the iWatch, or iBand, or whatever Apple ultimately calls their wearable, if/when they decide to ship it. But I do think there are real problems a wearable device can solve, and problems an Apple wearable is perhaps best positioned to solve.

The iWatch-er's dilemma

Apple is seldom first to market with major products. They don't cater to the early adopters. We suffered years of pain from Treo and BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, and Apple got years of real-world feedback before we got the iPhone. Likewise we were tortured by Tablet PC for a decade before the iPad became possible. In both cases Apple saw what the problems were, figured out how they could make something better, and then shipped into a maturing market.

Right now we're barely in the Handspring Visor stage of wearables. There hasn't been years of product on the market, suffering to see, and feedback generated that Apple can use to see where and how they can make something better. The market isn't yet mature and where an iWatch or iBand could succeed may not yet be clear.

There's also the question of positioning — would an iWatch be a flagship product like the iPhone or a companion product like the Apple TV? Would an iWatch be a business or a hobby?

Either way, I think there's little doubt that a first generation iWatch would be similar to a first generation iPhone, which lacked even a 3G radio, or a first generation iPad, which lacked even a camera. It would be a first step, but a first step towards a product line that eventually, generations later, yields the wearable equivalent to an iPhone 5 or iPad Air.

So, where could Apple start?

1. Notification

This is the easy one, the obvious one, the one on everyone's list. We've had popups since the iPhone launched and Notification Center banners since iOS 5. The idea of projecting popups or banners from the device in our pockets and purses to the device on our wrists is appealing in several ways.

My friend, for example, works in a hospital where the paging system is run on iPhone. She seldom has pockets in her clothes and the phone weighs down her lab coat. Thanks to her smartwatch, however, she can leave her phone on her desk and do her rounds, and all her pages show up on her wrist.

I have another friend who loves bike riding, skiing, and other sports and uses a smartwatch because it's difficult to hear it beep or feel it buzz when he's out and about, and nearly impossible to fish it out and check it when it does. The smartwatch lets him simply glance at his wrist and either make note of the information or see there's something urgent enough that he has to stop and handle it.

Personally I don't use a lot of notifications. High volume notification, for me, is indistinguishable from interruption. I only keep a very few on, but those I do keep on are really important to me and I absolutely don't want to miss them. Right now I miss them. I don't notice the beeps or buzzes either. I want something that somehow makes them damn-near un-missable.

2. Logging

The Apple M7 motion coprocessor allows the iPhone 5s to record acceleration, direction, orientation, rotation, and position data persistently without waking up the bigger, more demanding Apple A7 system-on-a-chip. As a result, I can use apps to track things like the steps I've taken. But I don't always have or want to have my iPhone with me, either because I've walked away and left it on my desk, or I'm working out and don't want it weighing me down.

Conversely, I've got most fitness trackers on the market and I've lost count of how many times I've forgotten to charge them or left them on the charger. I'd love something that would work seamlessly and interchangeably with my iPhone, handing off from one to the other no matter which I have with me at the moment. I'd love to not have to worry if I'm carrying my iPhone, iPad, or neither because my iWatch is on.

When/if breathing, blood, heart-rate, and other sorts of tracking technologies are feasible on mobile as well, it would only increase the value, like a forward deployed sensor array. It's a remote logging tool.

Update: Apple has introduced Health and HealthKit as part of iOS 8 to aggregate and propagate just this type of data. With it, and similar technologies in other areas, an Apple wearable could log much of what we do, even when we don't have an iPhone or iPad around.

3. Authentication

Passcodes are something we know. Touch ID fingerprints are something we are. The third factor of security is a token, something we have. A modern implementation of that idea is the Bluetooth trusted device. There's a lot of debate and discussion about just how secure Bluetooth trust really is but in general the idea that coming into proximity with something can unlock that thing holds a lot of appeal. An iPhone that you unlock with a passcode or Touch ID that then projects that trust to a Mac or even a home security system would be convenient. An iWatch that unlocks your iPhone or Mac simply by being close to it, less secure but even more convenient. An iWatch that has to be close to your iPhone or iMac, in addition to a passcode and/or fingerprint is less convenient but full-on multi-factor secure.

Security is still too complex and too obscure. Touch ID is a great first step in making it more convenient. An iWatch or Apple wearable could be another into making our devices either more convenient still or more secure than ever.

4. Control

I have a Hue light system at home. I have a SONOS speaker system. I control both with my iPhone, but it means my iPhone always has to be available to control them with. If it's in another room, or out of power, it's a major hassle. A wearable or a watch, if it could either communicate directly over Bluetooth LE, or if power allows, direct point-to-point Wi-Fi, then we'd have another remote control to use. As more and more objects become connected — become "smart" — a wearable as remote control becomes more and more valuable.

Update: Apple has announced HomeKit, a new framework for developers that standardizes home automation and "internet of things", including the ability to group actions together and use Siri for voice control. So, for example, you could say "Goodnight Siri" and HomeKit compatible devices would make sure your garage is closed, your doors are locked, your lights and music are off, and your coffee machine is set to help wake you up in the morning. That sure would be great to see on a wearable...

5. Range

The idea of an iWatch as a watch has... limited appeal to me. I haven't worn a watch regularly for years, not since I started carrying a smartphone. I've tried out smartwatches but none of have stuck, and I still have a watch that's more for jewelry than utility. But it does suggest an interesting dynamic. Just like an iPhone wasn't a regular phone but a mobile computer with a phone app, the iWatch might well not be a regular watch but an ultra-mobile computer with a watch app.

There are two ways Apple could go with that. They could make a range of watches from popular to premium, from fun to fashion, from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Or they could sidestep the watch entirely and make a band that, among other things, tells time if it really has to.

Having a low-end fitness band style "shuffle" option, could not only obviate the need for a traditional watch-as-time-keeper for those who don't wear them, but could easily be worn alongside a traditional watch-as-jewelry for those who do. It's the advantage that fitness bands have today, whether worn alone, on a different wrist, or the same wrist as a traditional watch. It's also an advantage current smartwatches don't and can't have.

One day there could be a range of iWatch/iBand products, with something as simple as the iPod shuffle on the low end and as audacious — and expensive — as the Mac Pro on the high end, but how much of that range can be launched at once, and what's the best, most mainstream place to start?

6. And more!

LTE and Wi-Fi probably can't be put into any small-sized wearable any time soon. A Bluetooth connection to an iPhone is fine as long as they're within 30 feet or so. But what if they're not? Apple's been working on multi-peer networking, on creating a mesh that can be hopped from device to device, access point to access point, in hopes of getting online to get what small amount of information it needs. Could that help ensure better connectivity at greater range for a wearable?

If Apple gets into gestures and gaming on the Apple TV, could motion tracking in an iWatch work as a controller for both interface and action on the big screen?

If Apple gets into mobile payments one day, could an iWatch-as-token authenticate purchases even when an iPhone isn't handy? As a Canadian soaking in NFC (near-field communications) — my gas stations, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, etc. all support tap-to-pay — having payment authentication on my wrist, no matter how it's implemented.

Apple doesn't mistake chipsets for feature sets. They don't fall in love with technologies and try desperately to cram them into products. They figure out what matters most and how best to deliver it. That said, there are some technologies at play that seem to fit with an iWatch even if I'm not sure quite how yet.

What problems would you like like solved by an iWatch?

That's my list of problems I'd like to see solved by an iWatch but I'm curious to know — what are yours? Is there anything your current iPhone or iPad can't do that you think a wearable could?

Note: Originally published April, 2014. Updated August 2014.