Apple is working with a startup—Health Gorilla—to add diagnostic data to iPhone, which will help hospitals to access vital patient data within minutes.
Health Gorilla is specifically working to add diagnostic data, including blood work, by collaborating with hospitals, lab-testing companies such as Quest and LabCorp and imaging centres.
The startup, which has raised just $5 million in funding, specialises in giving doctors a complete picture of patient health history, according to its website.
Apple is attempting solve the problem of hospitals struggling to access vital data about their patients at the point of care. The initiative is aimed at solving the problem by making the patient the centre of their own care.
"The goal is to give iPhone users the tools to review, store and share their own medical information, including lab results, allergy lists and so on," the report said.
Though Apple has also been focusing on aggregating fitness information, this new initiative may be deemed as a deviation.
According to Health Gorilla investor True Ventures, the startup CEO Steve Yaskin founded the company after a doctor friend of his was frustrated with the process of transferring patients' diagnostic test results.
"The startup is primarily geared to physicians and serves as a marketplace for them to place orders and share medical records," the report noted.
Apart from Apple that is focusing on health aspects of its customers, Microsoft has had a portal called Health Vault, while Google's project Google Health shut down in 2011.
