I’m on the record as being skeptical of Apple’s entrance into healthcare with Apple Health and HealthKit. I just don’t think they’ll dive deep enough into the intricacies of healthcare to really make a difference. They underestimate the complexity.
With that disclosure, I found a number of recent tweets about Apple and healthcare quite interesting. We’ll start first with this tweet that ties the recent nude celebrity photos that were made public after someone hacked the celebrities’ iCloud account together with Apple’s HealthKit release.
RT @Greg_Meyer93: #Apple hack horrible timing for release of #healthkit. #HealthIT http://t.co/eZHIAzZnE2 @techguy
— Dave Chase (@chasedave) September 3, 2014
For those who don’t follow Apple, they have a big announcement planned for September 9, 2014. Rumors have the new sizes of the iPhone 6 could be announced and the new iWatch (or whatever they finally call it) will be announced alongside the iPhone 6. We’ll see if the announcement also brings more details on Apple Health and HealthKit which has been short on concrete details.
Even if Apple Health and HealthKit aren’t involved in the announcement, every smartwatch I’ve seen has had some health element to it. Plus, we shouldn’t be surprised if the iPhone 6 incorporates health and wellness elements as well. Samsung has already embedded health sensors in the S5. I imagine iPhone will follow suit.
With Apple doing more and more in healthcare, it does bring up some new security and privacy issues for them. In fact, this next tweet highlights one healthcare reaction by Apple that is likely connected with the iCloud security issues mentioned above.
I wonder why? #HIPAA #HITsm Apple will reject any wellness apps that store private health data in iCloud http://t.co/k8CFg73qB9 …
— Don Fluckinger (@DonFluckinger) September 3, 2014
This reminds me of a recent business associate policy I saw from a backup software vendor. They were willing to sign a business associate agreement with a healthcare organization, but only if it was their most expensive product and only if it was used to backup your data to your own cloud or devices. Basically, they just wanted to provide the software and not have to be responsible for the storage and security of the data. Apple is taking a similar approach by not allowing private health data to be stored in iCloud. Makes you wonder if Apple will sign a business associate agreement.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on Apple’s entrance into healthcare. They have a lot to learn about healthcare if they want their work in healthcare to be a success. Security and privacy is just one of those areas.