NEW DELHI: Apple will continue to focus on consumers’ personal health and fitness features on the Apple Watch and iPhone, rather than relying on governments’ health information and medical records infrastructure around the world. In an interview, Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president, health, said it’s not out to transform medical records, but longs to help consumers gain more insight into their own health. It also aims to collaborate with researchers and start-ups in India to advance its health efforts. Edited excerpts:
NEW DELHI: Apple will continue to focus on consumers’ personal health and fitness features on the Apple Watch and iPhone, rather than relying on governments’ health information and medical records infrastructure around the world. In an interview, Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president, health, said it’s not out to transform medical records, but longs to help consumers gain more insight into their own health. It also aims to collaborate with researchers and start-ups in India to advance its health efforts. Edited excerpts:
What is the feedback from the medical community on bridging the gap between consumer tech and health tech?
What is the feedback from the medical community on bridging the gap between consumer tech and health tech?
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We aim to deliver actionable insights grounded in scientific evidence. So we spend a lot of time on accuracy, measuring against gold standards, and then actually publishing them. So when we think about all of the features we develop, our goal is to release the data and accuracy of our features for the medical community to understand. We really want to speak their language. I think this has been received much better by the medical community because they understand the language they speak as we try to explain what the science is behind the features we have featured.
It is not clear to doctors how these gadgets work. So how do you deal with that? Do you see it as a problem?
We spend more time communicating with the medical community. Our work in health started very early and in the US we have spent a lot of time communicating with the medical community. That is the reason for many studies with the medical community. So it’s their own people talking to them. We do presentations at the American Heart Association and the American Cardiology Association etc. The idea is how to make it more global. Interestingly we are a very small team and try to communicate more with doctors so they understand the value. But we are still at the very beginning and still have a lot to do.
Is Apple Trying to Tap into Government Systems for Health Data?
The honest answer is that in healthcare, we’re really consumer focused. Right now we’re trying to figure out how we can use our technology to gain insights that aren’t traditionally available. Our goal is for individuals to understand their own health data so that we can be in the driver’s seat of our own health.
We’re trying less to say we want to transform medical records. Now we do things in the medical record – in the US, UK and Canada and you can check your medical record on our phones. But we are still at the beginning of our journey to get the user to engage with their health.
Given the dynamic nature of regulations around the world, how do you approach data protection? It’s not like one size fits all, is it?
We’re already looking at that, because many of our features, like irregular heart rhythm notification, are software-as-a-medical-device and have to go through the regulatory authorities of several countries. We already have the ability to enable features based on each country’s regulatory requirements. We work with regulators for approvals and enable features as soon as they are approved. As such, we have built in the way we roll out our features and have the ability to make adjustments from country to country.
Are you collaborating with health researchers or institutions in India for your global initiatives?
As part of our Investigator Support Program, we provide watches to researchers around the world, and India is one of them. We have a team that connects with local researchers, doctors and medical institutions here in India and other countries.
Are there any plans to localize features for India?
We do this a bit through our globalization and localization work – maybe we have certain languages or color schemes that we only use in India that you wouldn’t see in the US. So we try to do this so that our features are inclusive.
Interested in working with Health Tech Startups or Developers in India?
We are very excited about our developer ecosystem. There’s a lot of amazing work happening here, and a lot of amazing work by female developers, so we’re really excited to continue these discussions and interact with them.
