Apple & Healthcare

Apple is pushing deeper into the business of health. At its event this morning, the company unveiled its newest software in the field: CareKit, an open source tool for building apps that lets iPhone owners track their medical data and share it with doctors. Apple is starting with an app designed for Parkinson’s disease patients.

And while Google’s efforts there — primarily with Verily, the medical research arm under Alphabet — are far 

more advanced scientifically, Apple has a considerable advantage in the race to seize the health-tracking market. It can turn every iPhone into a health-tracking device.

That seems to be Apple’s goal with its latest software product. It starts with convincing iPhone owners to share their bodily habits with their device (how many steps did I take today?) but would progress to turning the iPhone into an electronic medical research database — a potentially lucrative asset in the medical industry.