Healthbook May Monitor Heart Rate, Blood Sugar, and More

Apple’s interest in the medical field was revealed by its recent hirings, and according to sources familiar with the matter speaking with 9to5Mac, the market is ripe for reinvention. The next important step Apple will take is to reshape the mobile healthcare and fitness tracking space as we know it.

As you can see in the above image – recreated based on screenshots provided by anonymous sources – the Healthbook app (or whatever its name will be) will be based on the existing Passbook app, and the company is currently testing several different heath and fitness data points. It includes sections that can track blood work, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight data, Mark Gurman has learned.

In addition to the aforementioned data tracking ability, Healthbook is also said to contain an essential card dubbed as the Emergency Card, a place to store the customer’s name, birthdate, medication information, weight, eye colour, blood type, organ donor status, and location, sources reveal. Furthermore, it will allow users to add emergency contact information.

Now, the only question is: where does this all data come from? Since the company is rumoured to be working on an iWatch packed with multiple sensors, this could be one source. On the other hand, there are plenty of third-party iOS-compatible health accessories that can be used to track the essential data mentioned above.

In addition, there is the M7 co-processor, which has allowed developers to develop plenty of health-related apps and accessories. From this perspective, Healthbook could become the app that retains all the health-related data sourced my multiple parties.

As 9to5Mac points out, Apple is currently testing the software to be part of iOS 8, but the possibility of delaying its debut or even cancelling it is still there. As the tracked data already suggests, it will be strongly related to a hardware launch, so we may not preview it when iOS 8 is presented in a few months’ time at WWDC.