Apple’s Health app helps you gather valuable insights into your personal health, actionable data that should help you, or a medical pro, take better care of you. But there’s a problem we can solve while we wait for Apple Watch.
Export a no-no
One of my readers asked me to look into this; I'm sorry to say that it's a challenge to export Health app data in a useful format. In this report, I’ll explain how it should work, talk about why it should work, share a few opinions and tell you the best solution for exporting your data.
In the future, I expect integration between Health and patient records will improve. The Mayo Clinic is developing an app called Patient that will let you keep your physician informed about your progress or challenges.
Also read: The easy way to use Apple’s iOS 8 Health app
It is possible the facility to export Health data has been kept limited because:
- Apple must work through international regulatory and/or data protection limitations governing use of health information.
- Medical authorities worldwide must figure out how to make efficient and interoperable Electronic Health Records. There are multiple standards, few of them good.
- Apple is on a mission to ensure user privacy. What business does anyone in your government outside of your chosen medical professionals have in seeing your medical records? How does this make us safe from terrorism?
That’s the complex environment solutions like Apple’s must navigate right now.
Why export?
Here are just four situations in which you may wish to export the data gathered by Health app:
- To share with a medical professional
- To share with an insurance firm in the event of a claim
- To use as court evidence
- To share with friends
[NB: I think combining Health app with Game Center will be a big step, making a game of health and making Game Center useful, at last.]