Apple is reportedly on track to add another subscription service this year. According to Bloomberg, it will be a personalized health coach that uses AI to offer nutrition advice and medical suggestions based on data inside the Apple Health app.
If Apple is going into the AI doctor business, I want to be ready by gathering as much health data I can with iPhone-connected smart devices and monitoring apps. Even ones that track my blood.
So that meant stabbing myself with a blood glucose monitor that stays on my arm for two weeks. (Don’t worry, I didn’t feel a thing.)
For this week’s episode of One More Thing, embedded above, I go into why it makes sense for Apple to want to level up its health tracking and advice offerings. And I explain a bit of why I am also on this personal health data-gathering quest.
Many over-the-counter gadgets let you track all kinds of things at home without the help of a doctor. (Although I really should book a check-up soon.) I can track my metabolism with the Lingo blood glucose monitor. I can track hormone changes in my saliva with the Eli Health Hormometer. I can track kidney health by sticking gadgets in the toilet, which isn’t cheap, but hey, urine is trackable!)
What we do with that data is the next step. Apps such as Apple Health can store it in charts to send to doctors for analysis. Some apps also offer a light touch of advice. But can an AI chatbot make sense of trends in the data — and can we trust it?
If you can’t wait for Apple, a few AI chatbots are offering this very thing. Earlier this month, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health as a hub for all your medical inquiries, and Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare. Both tap into your personal data stored in Apple Health as well as other apps. And both are in a slow roll out testing phase.
Google also made headlines this month for its AI health advice, although it wasn’t good. An investigation by The Guardian found Google to give out dangerously inaccurate health advice over blood tests, which the report says would “leave people with serious liver disease wrongly thinking they were healthy.”
The fact that Apple will be using Google Gemini models in its next Siri upgrades doesn’t provide much confidence that Dr. Siri will have anything useful worth paying for right away. Still, I’ll be ready — using more connected health gadgets and getting more active on Fitness Plus to feed Apple Health additional data while I wait for clues about new software. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
Besides, even if the health coaching doesn’t work out, at least I’ll be working out… for me.
For more One More Thing, subscribe to our YouTube page to catch Bridget Carey breaking down the latest Apple news and issues every Friday.
