During the third quarter earnings call, Apple executives discussed the company’s financial performance and outlined expectations for its healthcare offerings in the future.
Four key notes:
1. Consumer products: The company has continued to expand its health and fitness offerings with the watchOS6, which has features that include cycle tracking and activity trends. It is now available in 32 markets and aims to give users the ability to monitor their health. Wearables revenue was up 54 percent, a significant contributor to the company’s overall growth.
2. Medical research: CEO Tim Cook said the company is furthering its medical research commitment. “We announced a new Research app paired with three unprecedented medical studies spanning hearing, heart and movement and women’s health,” he said during the call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. “We are collaborating with leading health institutions to reach more participants than has ever been possible, enabling them to contribute to potential medical discoveries and help create the next generation of innovative health products.”
The company aims to leverage its security and privacy to democratize medical research and “bring everyone to the table to make the next big breakthroughs possible,” said Mr. Cook.
3. Health records: Apple will continue its movement into the health records space, building out its health records connection into the health app. “It really democratizes the information about people’s health and so they can go easily from doctor to doctor,” said Mr. Cook.
Several hospitals and health systems have gone live with Apple Records this year, including Mishawaka, Ind.-based Franciscan Health and Doylestown (Pa.) Health over the past month.
4. Future: Mr. Cook alluded to new projects that Apple is working on that he declined to speak about at the moment. However, he reiterated the mantra that Apple’s “greatest contribution” will be in improving peoples’ health. It was recently reported that New York City-based Columbia University Medical Center cardiologist David Tsay, MD, joined Apple and will work closely with other physicians the company has hired.
The company also has posted healthcare openings in software engineering, a machine learning scientist for health sensing and an iOS engineer with clinical health insights.
Source: Becker’s Hospital Review
