Dr. Dushan Gunasekera, a medical graduate at St. Bartholomew who is currently running myHealthCare Clinic in Battersea, London and working with Regent’s Park Clinics believed that the HealthKit App of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be beneficial for pregnant women and people with diabetes.
HealthKit app could help diabetics monitor glucose level
Dr. Gunasekera explained that diabetics need to measure their glucose level constantly, which is traditionally done using pinprick. A portable device is used to analyze the small amount of blood.
According to him, “There are tiny monitors that can be implanted under the skin that can track blood glucose that could then be tracked using something like Apple HealthKit.”
Dr. Gunasekera said it would be a monumental lifestyle change for people with diabetes to receive alerts from their iPhone when their blood sugar falls too low.
“No more would they need to manually check their levels, they would just need to glance at their smartphones – or wait for an alarm signal to go off,” according to the doctor.
HealthKit app could help mothers monitor pregnancy
In addition Dr. Gunasekera said the HealthKit app will be useful for pregnant women citing the reason that they need to exactly monitor what type of food they are eating and what they are doing during the reason of the pregnancy (9 months).
“Monitoring something like heart rate would give mothers a way of ensuring their baby is doing well. There are ways to do this at the moment, but it involves regular prenatal checkups and there’s no real way of tracking stats in-between. By wearing a monitor at all times a mother could have her iPhone alert her if something was amiss,” said Dr. Gunasekera.
Other Benefits
Dr. Kapila said the HealthKit app could potentially help patients with COPD, asthma and sleep apnea. Dr. Gunasera added that the app is also useful for people engage in sports and fitness. Furthermore, he emphasized that the HealthKit app is ideal for monitoring blood pressure.
Apple needs to educate users about HealthKit app
Both Dr. Gunasekera and Dr. Kapila believed that it is critical for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to educate users regarding the HealthKit app, and emphasized that the technology cannot replace a real doctor.
Dr. Gunasekera pointed out, “The human body is a complex object that changes from day to day and from hour to hour. Being so complex means that it will take a trained professional to look at all of your stats to make a diagnosis if something is wrong.” He added, “Apple needs to make it clear that a Health app isn’t a replacement for regular checkups, it is instead a way of monitoring some of your stats in-between appointments that can affect your overall health.”
