Healthbook: Fitness Tracking comes to iOS

Seven years after the original iPhone, and four years after the original iPad, Apple has found a new avenue for reinvention: the mobile healthcare and fitness tracking industry. Apple aims to achieve said reinvention with a new stock app available with iOS 8 codenamed "Healthbook".

The Healthbook

Healthbook's user interface is largely inspired by the iPhone's existing Passbook application. As shown above, Healthbook is capable of tracking several different health and fitness data points. Categories of functionality are cards in the app. Cards are distinguished by color and can be arranged to fit user preference. According to the image, Healthbook can track data relating to bloodwork, heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, physical activity, nutrition, blood sugar, sleep, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and weight.

Fitness Functionality

Three of Healthbook's tabs are dedicated to fitness tracking: Activity, Weight, and Nutrition. Activity, as pictured above, is similar to many other pieces of fitness tracking software on the App Store and other platforms. It tracks steps taken, calories burned, and miles walked.

The weight tab, also shown above, the Weight tab allows users to input their height and weight information to track statistics like BMI and body fat percentage. Both Weight and Activity allows users to track their fitness progress over the course of a day, week, month, and year.

The Nutrition tab in Healthbook allows users to enter their food intake and maintain a diet. Combining fitness activity, weight tracking, and diet management into one application is certainly a powerful combination for both fitness enthusiasts and those trying to watch what they eat.

Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Monitoring

Heart rate and blood pressure are two of the most widely known health-related measurements. Blood pressure is commonly checked at the doctor’s office, pharmacy, or home, while heart rate can be measured by iPhone apps, smartphone cameras, and gym equipment. Healthbook will be able to store and track heart rate/pulse data in BPM (beats per minute) as well as blood pressure data. Blood pressure will be recorded in both its diastolic (minimum) and systolic (peak) forms. Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Gear Fit wearable device and the Withings Pulse can work with a smartphone to track heart rate, but those devices do not include blood pressure functionality.

Bloodwork, Oxygen Saturation, and Blood Sugar Tracking

The blood monitoring capabilities of Healthbook are perhaps the most unique and important elements of the application. Blood tracking functionality is found in sections called Bloodwork, Oxygen Saturation, and Blood Sugar.

The capabilities of the Bloodwork section are currently vague, but the tab can present several different blood-related data points normally provided by healthcare professionals and bloodwork labs. Hospitals often track blood data in yearly physicals for patients, including data points related to liver function, kidneys, thyroids, and the heart. Lab reports related to blood results are commonly distributed to patients through printouts, emails, or faxes. Using the latest software and hardware technology, it is possible that Apple wants to reinvent this process.

Healthbook can also track a person’s oxygen saturation. This refers to the percentage of oxygen that is in a person’s blood as a ratio to how much oxygen can possibly be stored in that person’s bloodstream. Oxygen saturation is important in the context of measuring a person’s respiratory rate (more on that below) and breathing quality. Many non-invasive devices for tracking oxygen saturation currently exist in the health tracking marketplace.

Hydration and Respiratory Rate Measuring

Hydration levels and respiratory rate are two other interesting health data points that Apple is working on tracking with Healthbook. Hydration tracking is critical, especially for athletes, and allows users to know how much water is in their bodies and if they need to drink more fluids.

Respiratory rate is the measurement of the amount of breaths a person takes per minute. Respiratory rate data can be interpreted via the same technologies used to power the aforementioned blood oxygen level data, and there are not many known wearable devices that specialize in tracking respiratory rates currently.

Sleep Tracking

Besides tracking fitness and blood-related information, Healthbook will have the ability to track sleep cycles. Details on what exactly that entails are currently slim.

Emergency Card

In addition to health and fitness tracking, Healthbook will be a centrally-located place that holds critical data about each iPhone user. The Emergency Card will store the customer’s name, birthdate, medication information, weight, eye color, blood type, organ donor status, and location. This information is critical for an emergency technician, doctor, or hospital staffer to identify and treat a user if they fall ill or become injured and are unable to speak for themselves.

The Emergency Card feature will also allow users to add emergency contact information. With that feature, someone would be able to instantly called a pre-programmed phone number to a user’s family member, for example, to notify them of an emergency. In order to be truly useful, it seems plausible that this emergency information would be accessible from the iPhone’s Lock screen much like Passbook passes could appear on the Lock screen.

Sourcing Data: M7, App Store, Third-party Devices, or iWatch?

While Healthbook is capable of tracking, sorting, and managing various types of health and fitness-related data, it is currently uncertain where this data will actually be sourced from. I believe that the data will be sourced from at least one of four possibilities: the iPhone itself, third-party App Store apps, third-party devices, or a future Apple wearable device (iWatch).

Thanks to the capabilities of the iPhone 5s’s M7 motion co-processor, Healthbook could technically receive steps, miles walked, and caloric data from the iPhone itself. However, that is where the M7 stops being useful for Healthbook. Blood, hydration, and respiratory rate information would clearly need to come from other sources.

The first possibility here would be that Healthbook serves as a unified place for all third-party health apps on an iPhone to store their data. Just like the similarly named Passbook is a central place for iPhone users to access movie tickets, coupons, and boarding passes from other apps, Healthbook could be a single place where iPhone users can collect data from their various health apps.

Debut

Apple is said to currently be testing the Healthbook software with iOS 8, the next version of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system. However, it is possible that the application’s launch could be pushed back to a future operating system version or cancelled entirely. If the application is tied to an Apple-built device, the debut would likely be connected to that hardware and may not be introduced alongside other iOS 8 functionality during Apple’s mid-2014 Worldwide Developer’s Conference.

Sources have also indicated that iOS 8 will retain most of iOS 7′s design and features, but it will likely feature improved Maps software with public transit directions support, a standalone iTunes Radio application to increase usage, refinements across the system, and enhanced iCloud integration.

Photos courtesy of 9to5mac.com