Chapter 20

Getting in Step with Health

Get ready to …

Get an Overview of the Health App

Use Medical ID359

Discover How to Input Data360

Import and Export Data

Explore Apps Health Can Work With

Understand How Equipment Connects with Health

Set Up the Dashboard

Health is a brand-new app that arrives with iOS 8. Essentially, Health is an aggregator for health and fitness data. You can input information about your height, weight, medications, nutrition, sleep quality, and more. You can then view that data in the Dashboard view.

In this chapter, I provide an overview of the Health app and how to get information into and out of it. I also give you a glimpse at some of the possible apps and health equipment that are slated to interact with Health to make it even more useful in months and years to come.

Get an Overview of the Health App

This has to be said right up front: Health is not ready for prime time. Although there are some apps and even equipment such as blood-pressure monitors that can connect with Health today, many more are under development.

That means that, at this point, you can mainly input data about your health and fitness manually and then view that information by displaying charts on the Dashboard or by viewing tables.

Health is divided into categories such as fitness, lab results, medication, nutrition, and sleep. When you tap the Health Data tab at the bottom of the Health Dashboard screen (see Figure 20-1), you see the categories listed in Figure 20-2. Each of these categories can have subtopics contained within it that you reach by tapping a main topic, such as Fitness.

Figure 20-1:

Figure 20-2:

The Health app also has a medical record feature called Medical ID, which is covered in the next task.

Use Medical ID

One of the simplest and easiest to use features is Medical ID, where you can store your vital statistics. This could be useful if you’re in an accident and emergency medical personnel need to access information about your blood type or allergies to medications, for example.

1. In the Health app, tap the Medical ID tab in the lower-right corner. You see an introduction to Medical ID.
2. Tap Create Medical ID.
3. In the screen that appears (see Figure 20-3), for items with a + sign surrounded by a green circle, tap the Add button to add a field.
4. For example, you might scroll down and tap Birthdate. When the screen in Figure 20-4 appears, use the scrolling columns that appear at the bottom of the screen to set a birth date; for example, use your finger to scroll up and down on the month field till you find your birth month; then do the same thing to the day and year columns until your birth date is set.
5. Tap a field such as Medical Conditions to enter information using the onscreen keyboard that appears.
6. Tap Done to save your entries.
7. Tap Edit to add more fields or edit existing fields.

On the Medical ID screen of Health is a note saying that if you choose to set the Show When Locked switch to On, emergency medical information will be available on the Lock screen.

Figure 20-3:

Figure 20-4:

Discover How to Input Data

1. Because most entry of data in the Health app at this time is manual, knowing how to enter data is important. Tap the Health Data tab.
2. Tap a category such as Fitness.
3. Tap one of the subtopics shown in Figure 20-5, such as Weight.
4. On the screen shown in Figure 20-6, tap Add Data Point.
5. Enter data using the onscreen keypad.
6. Tap Add.
7. Tap Show All Data (see Figure 20-6) to see a table of entries, including your most recent entry.

Figure 20-5:

Figure 20-6:

If you go into the Fitness Category in Health, you see an item named Steps. According to reports, a Steps counter is to be built into Health that can replace any third-party pedometer app.

Import and Export Data

Because developers are just beginning to create or modify apps to work with Health, it’s hard to show you examples of importing or exporting data. Additionally, different apps may send or receive data from Health using different interfaces and commands. But, theoretically, here’s how it should work.

When you use an app that supports Health, those apps will request permission to update data. For example, a pedometer or activity tracker app might be able to upload data to Health, saving you the drudgery of manual entry. You can tap the Sources tab in Health to view supporting apps that you’ve downloaded and installed to your iPhone.

See the next section for more about the types of apps that are coming down the pike that will work with Health.

In addition, you’ll eventually be able to export data using apps such as Patient from the Mayo Clinic (see Figure 20-7) so that you can keep your physician informed about your progress or challenges.

Figure 20-7:

Explore Apps Health Can Work With

Health has nowhere to go but up in terms of available apps that are designed to interact with it to supply imported data such as calories consumed and steps walked. Here are some of the apps that are rumored to be in development that will work with the Health app:

• Patient app by Mayo: This app (refer to Figure 20-7), allows you to manage doctor appointments, get test results, and read the latest medical news. Apple is working with the Mayo Clinic to add support for the Health app.
• MyChart app by Epic: This app is very similar to Patient by Mayo, allowing you to handle appointments, get test results, and so on. This is another app that is available in the App Store today but that may take a while to become a full-fledged support tool for Health.
• Nike+ apps by Nike: Several Nike apps take advantage of iPhone and iPad’s built-in accelerometer that allows the devices to handle and track movements. Track a variety of activities via Nike+ apps and integrate the data into Health.
• Fitbit by Fitbit, Inc.: FitBit wristbands measure activity, sleep, and calories. They have an app that works on the iPad and iPhone, which they are likely to connect to Health.

Health is rumored to be getting its own pedometer, Steps, which will be built into the app, saving you the trouble of using a third-party pedometer app. Though Health is currently set up as a shell for entering fitness and health data in one central place, it may just gain its own tracking functionality.

Understand What Equipment Connects with Health

In the future, Health will connect with a variety of equipment to import data about your health and fitness. For example, LEConnect currently has treadmills that can send data on your gym accomplishments.

Withings produces a wireless blood pressure monitor and weight scales that already support iPhone apps. Omron also produces a blood-pressure monitor that can supply data wirelessly.

Glucose monitors are another likely piece of equipment for porting data to Health, though some health care proponents are concerned about this more hard-core health data and the chance for error when used with an app not produced by a medical manufacturer. In addition, some of these health monitors are subject to federal approval, and self-reporting to a medical provider is under debate because it can become part of the official patient records, so it will be interesting to see how far into this area Apple can go with its Health app.

Set Up the Dashboard

1. Open a category and then a topic, such as Carbohydrates under Nutrition.
2. Tap the Show on Dashboard switch to turn it on (see Figure 20-8).
3. Tap the Dashboard tab at the bottom of the screen to see the item included with other data graphs.
4. To change the increment of time displayed on Dashboard graphs, tap Day, Week, Month or Year (see Figure 20-9).

Figure 20-8:

Figure 20-9:

To remove an item from the Dashboard, just tap the Health Data tab, tap the appropriate topic and then tap the subtopic, such as Height. Tap the Show on Dashboard switch to turn it off.