November 02, 2015

Health Kit: A Handy yet Inevitable Health Application by Apple

Staying fit and healthy in this fast paced life bounded by tight schedules becomes one of the most important aspects for every individual. Many of them are found looking for remedies while some other opt for regular checkups from their physicians. However, with aid of technology, you could have every aspect of your health on your fingertips and that too whenever you require.

Watch OS 2, a wearable technology by Apple, apart from various applications also includes an engaging health kit framework, the application of which has been named as health. Meaning, you would be able to get accurate information about fitness and health through your wrist watch! Believe it; this is now possible. The developers at Apple have provided this accessible solution to keep your updated with your health. Additionally, you could also get the same reports on your devices.

So what is an Apple Health Kit?

While this may be a popping query for many people who came around this term for the first time, health kit by Apple is already into service. Apparently, health kit is the option that allows the applications, which share their data with the new health application regarding health and fitness. The information about the health is recorded with the application and the user could decide the type of data he needs to share with the application.

This is a framework that stores the data unit of health information. Further, the user could also save, interpret or query about the health data. This iOS based service helps to track your health on your own iDevice and provides the necessary information. You could retrieve this information whenever required. Hence, you would have a portable health checker that you could use anytime a day.

Things That Could Be Known-

The Health Kit is not just limited to diagnose any particular disease. In fact, there are various fitness tests that you could determine from this application and that too at one place some of which include the heart rate, calories burned, cholesterol and various other types of health data. The reports or the information could be accessed with single tap on your wearable accessory or other mobile devices.

Apart from all of these, you could also have a separate report generation for blood group and allergies that could be referred while undergoing any treatment. The distinct factor about this functionality is that you could also access the data even if the screen is locked. Hence the user could consult about the same anytime.

The Internal Process-

The health kit inside the accessory consists of the folder which is known as Health Data. This data is divided into various categories that include fitness, body measurements, fitness, me, nutrition, results, sleep and vitals. The included subcategories within each category are displayed in the form of flash card which is then displayed on dashboard. So whether, one sleeps, walks or runs, everything would be recorded into the device.

How Is It Useful?

Health kit helps you to know about various health facades thereby saving you a lot of money. It analyses the growth and declination of health. The iWatch device includes heart rate sensors at its rear. Apparently, the sensor makes use of Infrared, visible LEDs and photodiodes for heart rate detection. As per the developers, the watch would be able to display the data and would suggest about the necessary steps upon analysis of data to provide health benefits.

All Under User’s Control-

All of your health and fitness information would be stored in one place on your device and under your control. Your generated information is shared and used by yourself. The application also allows you to decide the type of health information placed in the device and other applications that could access the data through the use of health application. Further, the health data remains in an encrypted format within a locked device or phone. Other than that, you could also take the backup of the data from iCloud. Meaning, you have all the movements of data under your control.

Applications Integrated With Health Kit-

Health Kit works in collaboration with the third party apps. Since after its announcement, there have been various applications which are readily providing services in collaboration with Apple’s health kit. Gradually more applications have shown up with regards to time as Apple managed to rework upon its health kit application after its launch.

Here are some of the companies which could be found providing their services in the store such as-

7 Minute Workout-This popular workout application would show the total burned calories and also guides you through your workout. It sends you the data and stats for each workout through Health.
My Fitness Pal- You could keep check on your diet through the details of meals and weight data sent to you through Apple Health by My Fitness Pal.
Yummly- The famous food application consists of over 20 million recipes and syncs with the platforms like Instacart. The application just monitors your eating habits and the way it affects your lifestyle.
Map My Run- A round the clock activity tracking on iOS, Map My Run offers thorough analysis of runs of an individual. The received information could be logged on to Apple Health.

Similarly, there are various other applications which provide their services with health kit. The thing to note in this regard is that most of the applications in the store are available for free.

Apple’s Research Kit For Advanced Medical Study-

Many of the masses have wondered over the significance of Research Kit when already Apple’s Health exists. However, there is a bit difference in this case. Research Kit is an entirely open source software framework, which has been specifically designed for researchers and developers to develop applications which could make a convenient change in the medical studies to make the medicines more curable.

To conclude, in this era where life has wrapped around schedules, looking after health becomes one of the prime aspects. Hence to serve this purpose, Apple through its iOS Application Development has once again provided a useful and at the same time handy health applications for the users.

Team Azilen

Azilen Technologies is a Product Engineering company. We collaborate with organizations to propel their software product development journey from Idea to Implementation and all the way to product success.