Table of Contents
Introduction
The Apple Health app is a comprehensive tool designed to consolidate health data from various sources into one accessible location on your iPhone. Paired with an Apple Watch, the app becomes even more powerful, offering detailed insights into your physical and mental well-being. Despite its potential, the app can sometimes be confusing to navigate. This article will explore the features of Apple Health and share my personal experiences, including the challenges I’ve faced in trying to integrate my health records with the app. It has some great potential, but Apple needs to quickly fix some glaring omissions.
Apple Health Overview
What is Apple Health?
Apple Health is a centralized hub for all your health data, collecting information from your iPhone, Apple Watch, and third-party apps and devices. It organizes this data into categories such as activity, mindfulness, sleep, and nutrition, providing a holistic view of your health.
Key Features
- Activity Tracking: The app tracks your steps, walking and running distances, and active calories burned. When paired with an Apple Watch, it also monitors standing hours and exercise minutes.
- Heart Health: Apple Watch users can take ECGs, receive notifications for irregular heart rhythms, and monitor their cardio fitness levels.
- Sleep Analysis: The app tracks your sleep patterns, including time asleep, heart rate during sleep, and sleep stages.
- Nutrition Tracking: You can log your food intake and track macronutrients and micronutrients through third-party apps like MyFitnessPal.
- Medical Records: Apple Health can import health records from supported healthcare providers, making it easy to access your medical history.
Enhanced Features with Apple Watch
The integration with Apple Watch enhances the functionality of the Health app significantly. Features like high and low heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm alerts, and detailed workout metrics become available, making the watch an indispensable tool for health monitoring.
My Personal Experience with Apple Health
As a middle-aged man, I am trying to make up for years of neglecting my health by belatedly trying to take better care of myself as I see the sand from my hourglass slipping away. Battling issues like obesity and hypertension, I’ve found Apple Health to be a valuable tool in my quest for a healthier life. However, my journey with the app has been a mix of triumphs and frustrations. First, let me write about some of the things Apple Health does masterfully well.
Aiding My Health Journey
One of the best features of Apple Health is its ability to serve as a central repository for all my health records and data. For instance, I use the RENPHO Smart Scale for Body Weight, which integrates seamlessly with Apple Health. Each time I weigh myself, the data is automatically added to Apple Health app where I can monitor and track my weight. This smart scale is accurate and convenient, providing insights into my weight trends over time.
Another essential device in my health arsenal is the Omron Blood Pressure Monitor. Unlike cheaper models with buggy apps and inaccurate readings, the Omron Platinum Blood Pressure Monitor is reliable and syncs effortlessly with Apple Health. Accurate blood pressure readings are crucial for managing my hypertension, and this device has been a game-changer for me. Having it sync directly with the Omron app and Apple Health immediately after taking a reading is so much more convenient than manually inputting the numbers. And because its Omron, you can trust the readings.
The final tool that has significantly impacted my health routine is the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Initially skeptical, I now can’t imagine living without it. Beyond its convenience for daily tasks, the Apple Watch excels in health monitoring. It tracks my blood oxygen levels, performs ECGs, monitors my steps, and provides insights into my sleep patterns. For someone with sleep apnea, the sleep tracking feature is particularly valuable, helping me understand my sleep quality and duration.
For some reason, Apple includes what I consider to be very cheap and ugly watchbands. I highly recommend you replace it with a higher-quality band as soon as you order the watch. I have been very happy with this shock-resistant gold stainless steel wristband. I also bought ones in black and silver metallic. They are strong, provide protection, and just look and feel much more elegant than the cloth and rubber ones Apple includes.
Areas for Improvement
Despite these benefits, there are areas where Apple Health needs to make some drastic changes and improvements quickly. For example, the blood pressure screen allows viewing data by day, week, month, six months, or year. However, the chart is not interactive, making it difficult to drill down into individual readings. Additionally, the calendar view shows which days data was recorded, but clicking on these dates does nothing. To export meaningful data for my doctor, I had to purchase a third-party app, Heart Reports by Viszt Peter, which offers PDF and Excel export options. This is a feature Apple Health should include natively.
Another significant challenge was trying to import data from my doctor. Two of my doctors use a platform called Patient Portal by Healow, which works well. However, the Apple Health app’s search functionality for adding doctors is limited and poorly organized. Any doctor or hospital wishing to join will have a very difficult time trying to navigate and find any information.
When I contacted Apple, here was their reply:
Hello Alan,
Thank you for your interest in Health Records.
At this time your EHR Vendor is not supported. Please have your EHR Vendor reach out to [email protected] to be registered for Health Records. We appreciate your interest and we will be in touch with you when your EHR vendor is supported in future.
Apple Newsroom announcements about Health Records are available here and here. And a brief overview of Health Records for health systems can be found here.
Thank you,
Health Records Support [email protected]
This fragmented system is a major drawback. Apple Health needs to work with more EHR vendors and streamline the process for adding doctors. I also spoke to my doctor about this issue, and he stated his office had tried multiple times to join the Apple Health app but were met with frustration and obstacles. I should point out that luckily Labcorp was supported within Apple Health. Both my doctors use labcorps for all the various blood panels I do so that is very helpful to have all those tests dating back many years readily available.
Additionally, the user interface could be more intuitive. Navigating through various sections and finding specific data can be cumbersome. It is a very un-Apple-like experience and just feels awkward and clumsy to use. The app also should make it easier to export readings without relying on third-party apps.
Conclusion
Apple Health has been instrumental in my journey towards better health, particularly when paired with devices like the Apple Watch, RENPHO Smart Scale, and Omron Blood Pressure Monitor. The app excels in consolidating health data and providing valuable insights. However, there is room for improvement, particularly in its interface, data export capabilities, and compatibility with EHR vendors. Addressing these issues would make Apple Health an indispensable tool for health management, especially for those like me who are trying to make up for years of health neglect.
I agree and had the same problem. I want to print out my blood pressure reading to send to my doctor but could never figure out how to export them. Thanks for the tip about health records. I will check it out