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Apple planning for the iPhone to become a “one-stop shop” for medical data

Here’s an interesting insight into the future of healthcare – Apple wants to expand the capabilities of the iPhone to track and store all kinds of personal medical data, in addition to the fitness and wellness information already stored in the iOS Health app. It’s already planning a way to help combat diabetes, and this could be the next big step.

According to a report from CNBC, Apple has a “secretive team” working hard on a “one-stop shop” for health-related matters. Much of this work involves talks with hospitals and other medical groups to agree how best to share data. The idea here is to form a secure centralized store for a user’s medical records that would make it much easier – both for patients and doctors – to quickly access all kinds of useful data.

Currently, it can be difficult to share information between different hospitals and clinics, and oftentimes patients have to call their doctor just to access basic data. Some health providers have their own systems in place to make this easier, but Apple believe the whole system – especially in the US – is too fragmented. Hence the heavy investment into making things easier for everyone.

Companies including Google have tried this kind of thing before, but Apple is in a stronger position in terms of privacy and security than many competing tech companies. If one firm is going to harvest all your medical records, you want to be able to trust it.

The full article on CNBC is worth a read if you’re curious about how this could work and how close Apple is to achieving it.

Related reading: how Apple can change healthcare for the better