This Week in Healthtech:
Amazon’s Secret Lab

Week Ending 06-08-18: Big news from Apple, Amazon’s secret lab, and health app safety.

Apple is Introducing a Health Record API for Developers This Fall

A major announcement from Apple’s World Developer Conference — open health record data. This move will allow third-party apps access to previously unavailable data and users can now share their information with “trusted apps.” For those concerned about privacy, Apple made sure to highlight that “the data flows directly from HealthKit to the third-party app and is not sent to Apple’s servers.” Read more.

Inside Amazon’s Grand Challenge — A Secretive Lab Working on Cancer Research and Other Ventures

More evidence to support Amazon’s move into the healthcare space, the latest from CNBC features a look into Amazon’s Grand Challenge group. Run by a former Google Glass executive, the group is said to be working on health projects including cancer-related research although few specifics about the work and future applications are readily available. Read more.

Health Apps Have Little Effect on Actual Health

U.S. News & World Report’s article delves into the latest study from Nature on the efficacy of smartphone health apps. The report cites that less than half of the apps studied influenced positive health outcomes — including one of the most popular tracking apps, MyFitnessPal. Read more.

Why Apple Can’t Tackle Digital Wellness in a Vacuum

In Wired’s look at Apple’s latest venture into the “digital wellness” movement, they are quick to point out issues with the tech giant’s strategy — “If Apple were serious about providing users with evidence-based time management tools, the company would have worked with third party experts, like psychologists and behavioral scientists.” Read more.

Safety Stamp for Health Apps to Bring More Trust to New Solutions

With an abundance of apps in the marketplace, global testing firm SGS plans to assign an “HSP Safety Mark” to those apps it deems “secure for use.” With the safety mark, SGS is aiming to bring a standard of regulation and trust to the non-medical health app market. Read more.