What you need to know
- Apple has announced some big changes to Health on its ecosystem at WWDC 2021.
Apple has today announced changes to Health on its ecosystem, including new ways to monitor health for its users.
A new Walking Steadiness measurement can use the iPhone's mobility data and its built-in motion sensors to track the length and timing of your steps, right down to how often both feet are on the ground. This can be used to track changes in balance, stability, and coordination. This can be tracked in the Health app to show how your walking steadiness changes, ultimately so you can be alerted if your risk of falling increases, as well as pointing you to exercise that can help.
Users can already access some lab results on iOS, but the Health app will now include detailed explanations to help you understand what a result might mean. You can also see if your results fall within expected ranges.
A new Trends feature can now give users insight into long-term changes such as steps, resting heart rate, sleep, blood glucose, and more, alerting you to any potential changes, positive or negative.
Users can now choose to share Health data privately with providers such as heart data, so your doctor can view it directly on their own systems to improve your healthcare. Several companies in the US will be able to take advantage of this initially.
New updates for Family care come in the form of Health Sharing, letting you see data, trends, and alerts for the people closest to you. With permission, users can share important metrics like heart rate, activity, labs, and more between family members. This includes notifications so that you can be alerted if the status of a relative changes. All of the data is encrypted and can't be seen by Apple.
Apple has also made big changes to Privacy across its platforms which you can read about here.
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