Apple is about to deliver on years of speculation with a big leap into AI-driven digital health provision. That’s the claim.
It’s not really a new expectation.
There have been numerous suggestions to show this direction of travel was on the company’s mind. After all, once you have built in support for fitness, healthy habits, and health records, supplementing that information with AI-driven insight seems a straightforward idea. Well, it does to me.
Prevention is better than cure
Apple has already told us its intentions: “Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey,” said Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, in 2023. It is also true that preventative health is easier to gain approval for than diagnostic health care, hence the accent on the journey.
Mark Gurman says the project is called Mulberry and will feature an AI-driven health coach who will replicate a real doctor. The plan is part of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s vision for Apple to make a fundamental difference to healthcare.
Back in 2019, Cook told us: “I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?’ it will be about health,”
Set to launch with iOS 19.4 in spring 2026
These exciting new features will appear with iOS 19.4, which I suggest means next year. I imagine it will be a US-only service on launch, given changing regulation in the US and strict rules around digital health in most sensible nations.
Gurman says the system has been trained on data gathered by Apple’s own teams of physicians. “Apple is also looking to bring in outside doctors, including experts in sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health and cardiology, to create videos,” he writes.
I guess that may be useful to help handle some medication and conditions.
Much of this will be led by some big personality doctor, like a TV show host, and focus will be on food and nutrition and to help users perform more effectively when doing workouts with Fitness+.
Apple could take this further
Can Apple do more? Perhaps. If it did, this is what I’d like to see from the Health+ service – subject to effective privacy protection and rock solid E2EE. (Apple has already stressed just how important it is to protect privacy for AI digital health):
- Apple devices gather data about your health. This already happens.
- This data is shared with your medical practitioner, who may at times also run more invasive physical tests, including blood tests.
- Your medical history is also poured into the mix.
- Apple’s own health algorithms analyze this information to provide precise insight into your own personal health, based on years of in-depth testing and trial. Is it possible that dementia symptoms may be surfaced more easily than now?
- The system can then provide actionable advice to maintain your current health.
- It can also offer early warnings as ongoing conditions or your broader health declines.
- That information may give you a head start in the event you are becoming ill – Apple Watch is already achieving this with some heart conditions.
- The system should also be able to support patient recovery, based on recommendations from your health practitioner.
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