healthcare

A New York ophthalmologist made history recently, becoming the first surgeon in the world to perform cataract surgery using Apple’s Vision Pro headset, according to a new report. It offers a compelling new use case for a device that has struggled to find mass-market traction.

“We are now able to bring the world’s best surgeon into any operating room, at any hour, from anywhere on the planet,” Dr. Eric Rosenberg said. “From residents performing their first cases to surgeons facing unexpected complications, this technology democratizes access to expertise — and that will save vision.”

Apple committed to a major White House initiative aimed at revolutionizing how Americans access and manage their healthcare data. The federal government partnered with more than 60 technology and healthcare companies in an ambitious effort to create a “smarter, more secure and more personalized healthcare experience,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said Wednesday during a White House “Make Health Tech Great Again” event.

The Health Technology Ecosystem plan looks like one of the most significant federal pushes to modernize U.S. healthcare infrastructure in decades. Alongside Apple, major participants include Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, signaling broad industry support. Apple will develop apps for the plan’s “Kill the Clipboard” initiative.

And as expected, the prospect of government and major corporations handling healthcare data raises privacy concerns for patients.

Despite suffering modest sales with consumers, Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset seems to be finding an unexpected but promising application in the medical field, particularly in surgery, according to a new report Tuesday.

So as Vision Pro helps surgeons and patients — and even cash-strapped medical providers — it could be a big deal in healthcare.

Apple CEO Tim Cook made an appearance at the TIME 100 Summit in New York City today where he spoke about leadership and innovation.

Cook sat down with Time managing editor Nancy Gibbs who asked about everything from education to privacy policy. Of course, politics came up as well. While Cook refrained from talking about his conversations with Donald Trump, he did warn the crowd that some issues like global warming are too big for us to rely on the government to fix.

Apple today confirmed that the Health Records feature on iPhone will soon be available to veterans.

The company is working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure that, for the first time, U.S. veterans receiving care through the Veterans Health Administration will have access to their health records directly on their iPhone.

Apple might be planning to come out with some new health features that are specifically geared toward women, based on the company’s newest big hire.

Dr. Christine Curry — an obstetrician-gynecologist that made a name for herself by treating women with the Zika virus — has reportedly been hired by Apple to bolster its women’s health projects.

One of the biggest health insurance providers in the U.S. is giving customers the option to earn a free Apple Watch Series 3 by engaging in healthy activities like exercise and sleeping better.

Aetna revealed today that it is collaborating with Apple for its new app called Attain. Through the app, Aetna members will get personalized goals, be able to track their activity and get recommendations on healthy action. And if you do a good job, you’ll earn some cool rewards too.

Apple has made another high-profile hire that could help the company gain a stronger foothold in the healthcare space.

Former Mango Health CEO Jason Oberfest left his highly-regarded startup last month. At the time, Mango Health only named a replacement but didn’t say where Oberfest was headed to. Now we have news that he has joined Apple as a member of its health team.

Amazon has a secret team working on new health technology that could go head to head with Apple’s.

The retail giant is said to be working on electronic medical records, telemedicine, and new health apps for devices like the Amazon Echo.

Are you unable to afford your new health insurance premiums now that Obamacare might be going away? Well, according to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, you should trade in your iPhone.

The GOP’s replacement plan for Obamacare has been met with plenty of hate from both sides of the aisle, but in an interview this morning, Chaffetz pointed out that people just aren’t focusing on how the new law will give us all more choices.

With innovations like HealthKit and ResearchKit, Apple has been making big strides into healthcare in the past couple of years. In a new interview with Conversations with Health Care, Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams talks about Apple’s belief in the “democratization” of medicine, among other topics.

When Apple sends its millions of followers your way, you’d better be ready!

That’s the lesson learned by mobile health developer AirStrip Technologies, which reports that it was unprepared for the stampede of digital feet which came after its Apple Watch demo at yesterday’s keynote.

“Our website was crashed within seconds,” AirStrip CEO Alan Portela said — adding that, “I have to confess, I didn’t know we were going to be right after Tim Cook.”

The success of devices like the iPhone and iPad in healthcare has become so pronounced that the Department of Health And Human Services has begun to single-out the use mobile devices as part of the meaningful use requirements for electronic health records (EHR) systems. In addition to identifying mobile device use, the agency has also taken steps towards explicitly regulating mobile device security needs in the healthcare industry.

Could IBM’s Watson replace Siri? That’s an interesting question and IBM’s answer appears to be yes. Big Blue is working to turn the supercomputing solution that made news when it beat Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter into an app that could run on a smartphone. If successful, IBM will turn Watson into a supercharged version of Apple’s digital assistant.

What do you do if you’re a medical technology startup while waiting for the FDA to approve your flagship iPhone-based product?

If you’re AliveCor, you launch a veterinary version of it.

The product in question is AliveCor’s iPhone ECG heart monitor, which the company showed off nearly two years ago, at the CES in 2011. The device allows a medical professional to assess a patient’s heart rhythm, providing more data than a stethoscope or manual check of their pulse. Although the device has broad potential, it has yet to be approved by the FDA.

The iPhone is the most popular device among medical professionals, followed by the iPad and then Android smartphones. That’s one of the key findings in a new study that examines the relationship between electronic health records (EHR) systems, mobile technology, and how doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers use both mobile devices and EHR systems.

One of the biggest points of the survey, however, is that the vast majority of U.S. healthcare providers do not use a mobile device to access electronic records. In fact only about in one in twenty (6%) use a mobile device to access electronic records or prescribe medications using an electronic prescribing system. That’s despite the fact that almost three-quarters (72%) of providers report using mobile technology as part of their practice.

We talk about the iPad’s role in healthcare pretty regularly. Many physicians and health care practices have found innovative ways to integrate the iPad into daily patient interactions. According to a new study, the pharmaceutical industry has discovered that the iPad is an excellent tool for promoting new medications and that it can influence the prescribing habits of doctors.

The iPad has become a fixture in health care that simplifies the lives of doctors and nurses. It turns out that the iPad can improve the quality of care patients receive if it is used as a mechanism to record a patient’s medical history and/or as a way of monitoring that patient’s progress on follow-up visits.

Department of Veterans Affairs is no stranger iOS devices or to developing custom apps to help deliver key services to veterans and their families. In fact, the VA’s CIO last year said that the agency needed to become “iPad friendly” in order to effectively support the agency’s physicians, nurse, and other medical staff and an iOS pilot program was launched earlier this year.

More recently, the VA has been looking for ways that mobile technology can help homeless veterans find food, shelter, and other critical resources. To achieve that goal and raise awareness of veteran homelessness across the country (one out of six homeless adults in America is a veteran), the VA has teamed up with JBJ Soul Foundation, the non-profit charity created by music legend Jon Bon Jovi to launch an iOS/Android app contest called Project REACH.

Health related iOS apps are proliferating quickly in the App Store. While the most popular health related apps tend to be focused on diet, exercise, and stress relief, there are some other fast growing trends that show how the iPhone and iPad transforming the healthcare experience for consumers.

According to MobiHealthNews, which provides an annual assessment of the market for mobile apps related to medicine, health, and fitness, three new trends are emerging that could significantly reshape our experience of healthcare.

Seeking to challenge the iPad’s ongoing success in the healthcare field, Panasonic has announced an updated version of Toughbook tablet for doctors offices and hospitals. The update is the latest for Toughbook product line that Panasonic introduced in 2008.

The 10-inch screen size is about the only thing in the new Toughbook CF-H2 Health tablet offers that is similar to the iPad. The Toughbook is a Windows 7 tablet powered by an Intel Core i5 processor that relies on a 320GB hard drive rather than flash memory for storage (though a 128 GB SSD is available as a custom build option). It weighs in at a whopping 1.58 kg (3.48 pounds) – more than double the weight of the new iPad.

The Toughbook, which will ship next month, will have an entry-level price of €1,898 (approximately $2,330). That’s more than four times the cost of an entry-level new iPad and just shy of six times the cost of the entry-level iPad 2.

The uses for Apple’s iPhone and iPad in healthcare seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. The latest field of medicine to take note of the power that iOS devices offer doctors and healthcare providers is ophthalmology. A new study shows that the iPhone may make a better tool when reviewing certain types of ophthalmology images that a standard desktop PC workstation.

What’s truly amazing is that the iPhone used in the study was a four-year-old iPhone 3G.

When it comes to talking about iOS devices in healthcare, most of think of doctors carrying iPads the way that they used to carry lengthy paper charts or clipboards. We think about doctors looking at X-rays and other diagnostic tests on an iPad, perhaps even using the iPad to illustrate a broken bone, illness, or surgical procedure.

Doctors, however, aren’t the only healthcare professionals to be embracing mobile technology. A new study shows that the vast majority of nurses have also embraced mobile devices, particularly the iPhone and other smartphones. It also highlights that differing needs of healthcare professionals when it comes to mobile technology.

Doctors may be fans of the iPad as a clinical tool, but they’re not certain that Apple’s iPad, the 5000+ health and medical apps in the App Store, or other mobile technologies are safe and effective health tools for patients. That’s the gist of a report by PwC Global Healthcare. The report was based on surveys of physicians, healthcare management professionals and payers, and mobile technology users in ten countries around the world.

According to the report, just under two-thirds (64%) of healthcare providers acknowledged that mobile technologies offer potential benefits for patients, but feel that mobile health (also known as mhealth) is virgin and untested territory. As a result, the majority of doctors (73%) don’t suggest iOS or mobile health apps to their patients and some (13%) even discourage patients from using them.

The iPad has been popular with doctors and healthcare providers since it debuted two years ago. In fact, the iPad’s form factor and capabilities are almost tailor-made for many common and emerging uses in medicine like electronic health records, medical and drug reference guides, and even remote diagnosis using FaceTime.

With hospitals rolling out iPad deployments and many physicians in private practice buying them, it was only a matter of time before healthcare-specific iPad accessories hit the market. Griffin Technologies is one of the first companies to focus on making the iPad an even better fit for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals with a new case that’s designed specifically for medical environments.