Apple Healthbook To Track Fitness, Blood Sugar, Sleep And Other Health Data

Apple is set to include a fitness and health application known as Healthbook in iOS 8, allowing iPhone users to track data in a number of categories, harvested from the smartphone itself, third party devices and applications, and possibly a health-focused iWatch.

According to new information and images obtained by 9to5mac, Healthbook, which bears a striking resemblance to the existing Passbook application, could be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) later this year.

Screenshots suggest that Healthbook is capable of collecting data in a range of categories, including bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight, displayed as cards.

Apple Healthbook

Healthbook would also have an emergency card, which would have information such as name, date of birth, medication information, weight, eye colour, blood type and organ donor status, and could appear in the lock screen, just like boarding passes in Passbook.

Some of the data could be entered by users, while the iPhone’s M7 processor is in theory capable of tracking steps, distance travelled and caloric data, but other information would have to come from other sources.

It is speculated that this could come from first and third party applications, and devices such as Fitbit, as well as the widely-expected iWatch, which is rumoured to have a heavy focus on health, with Apple recruiting a number of engineers with medical experience. In that sense Healthbook could be a centralised folder that collects data from a range of sources, just like Passbook.

Last month at Mobile World Congress, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 smartphone with built-in heart rate sensor and pedometer, along with a range of fitness applications that some analysts believed would give it the edge over the competition. The Korean manufacturer announced the Samsung Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit as it seeks to assume leadership in the wearable tech market ahead of the expected launch of the iWatch.

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