When it comes to staying healthy, focusing on the basics—exercise, a good diet, and quality sleep—is essential. Apple Health helps you track all these wellness metrics, from fitness tracking features like steps, heart rate, and activity levels, to monitoring your sleep and more.
But staying healthy goes beyond just fitness. Equally important is visiting your doctor for regular check-ups. These check-ups, along with diagnostics like blood tests and relevant scans, provide a fuller picture of your health, helping you identify potential issues early.
As you continue visiting different doctors over time, it can become challenging to track all the details of your medical history. So, for example, if someone asks you what your LDL – aka “bad cholesterol” – level is and how that compares to your level from five years ago, you likely have to comb through paper records and/or multiple online portals to answer.
Did you know there is a solution that aggregates your medical records from various sources, making them easily accessible in the palm of your hand? Apple Health offers a convenient way to do just that. But it’s also capable of so much more. In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the key features that can help you—and others—stay on top of your health.
What is Apple Health?
Apple Health is an app developed by Apple to help you organize and securely access your important health data in one central place. In our previous article, “TRACK YOUR HEALTH | Harnessing Wearables for a Healthier Heart,” we explored the benefits of wearables for tracking essential health metrics. With Apple Health, data from various devices, such as blood pressure monitors, smart scales, thermometers, and pulse oximeters, is aggregated to give you a comprehensive view of your health. For example, data from the Apple Watch, the most popular wearable device, is seamlessly integrated into the Apple Health app.
Apple Health aggregates health data from your wearables and other devices, including blood pressure monitors, smart scales, thermometers, and pulse oximeters, providing a comprehensive view of your health. The Apple Watch is the most popular wearable device, and data collected from that device is captured in Apple Health. Don’t have an Apple Watch? Not to worry as wearable devices from Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung, Amazfit, Oura, Whoop, and more all integrate with Apple Health.
Data collected by Apple Health is organized and presented in a way that allows you to see how your health metrics are trending over the course of a given period (day/week/month/year, etc.) or through time. Data that I track includes blood pressure, vo2 max, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep duration (by sleep stage), steps, active calories, and more.
Data Sharing
As the saying goes, ‘sharing is caring,’ and that holds true when it comes to medical data. With Apple Health, you can easily share your health data with doctors or loved ones, giving them access to the information you choose. You’re always in control of what gets shared and can turn off sharing at any time. This feature is especially helpful if you have an aging parent or want your doctor or loved one to keep an eye on your health for added peace of mind.
You can also set health alerts to alert others about metrics, including high or low heart rate, irregular rhythm, walking steadiness, and more. If you have an aging parent, or you want a doctor or loved one to have insight into your health, the ability to share can provide peace of mind, knowing that others can keep an eye on your health.
Data Aggregation
One standout feature of Apple Health is its ability to integrate your medical records from hospitals, labs, and various healthcare networks. This allows you to access important health data that goes beyond what wearables and devices capture. Clinical notes, lab results, vitals, and even detailed procedure information are all available in one place, right in the palm of your hand. Data from different sources are presented on a single timeline so, for example, you can see your historical LDL cholesterol measurement from different hospitals or labs presented together on a timeline.
Apple touts privacy and security at the core of Apple Health. Apple Health ensures that your data remains private and secure, utilizing end-to-end encryption, and giving you complete control over who sees your health information.
Other Safety Features
A key feature of Apple Health is the Medical ID, which provides first responders with immediate access to vital health information from your phone’s lockscreen—no passcode required. The Medical ID captures essential details such as your name, age, medical conditions, allergies, and emergency contacts.
Another valuable safety tool is Emergency SOS, which connects you to emergency services in critical situations. For iPhone models 14 and above, Emergency SOS even works via satellite when you’re out of cellular or Wi-Fi range. Emergency SOS also sends a message to the emergency contacts you designate in your Medical ID, alerting them of your situation and location.
If you’re using an Apple Watch, additional safety features are available, including fall detection and notifications to emergency contacts if an accident occurs. These tools can give you peace of mind, knowing that help is always just a button press away.
Conclusion
If you care about your health—which it’s clear you do since you’re reading this article— and want to make managing it easier, then Apple Health is a must-have tool. With its robust features, including integration with medical records, data sharing, and safety features, it’s an indispensable tool for Apple users. And while Google Fit is available on Android, it doesn’t offer the same comprehensive health and safety options that Apple Health provides.