Stanford and Duke to Trial Apple HealthKit

Apple’s HealthKit platform is the focus of medical trials about to kick off at two prominent US hospitals. The trials will show how Apple’s ambitious healthcare platform works in practice, as it will be used with diabetics and patients suffering from chronic diseases, reports Reuters.

Health hero

The first medical institution, the Stanford University Hospital, will be rolling out a trial program that will let Apple work with physicians to track blood sugar levels for children with diabetes. Duke University is developing a trial to track blood pressure, weight, and other measurements for patients with cancer or heart disease, the Reuters report highlights.

As Rajiv Kumar, the physician in charge of Stanford’s trial program says, the team has chosen two young patients with diabetes, and has plans to extend the trial to teens and infants.

Duke University’s Rick Bloomfield has high hopes for the trial, and anticipates it will help doctors access the data they need to better monitor sick patients living at home.

During the trial, patients will use regulated medical equipment and the Apple device to keep track of their health data. The link between the measuring devices is established by HealthKit, which will collect the data measured by the medical devices and upload it to Epic’s MyChart application, where it can be viewed by the doctors in Epic’s electronic health record during the trial.

Apple’s Health app and HealthKit will go live shortly, as the company will release the public version of iOS 8 in just two days, on September 17.

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