We recently talked about the work of Apple aiming to add a glucose meter to the Apple Watch — which would have been in development for over 12 years and would be the company’s next big step when it comes to health features on Apple’s smartwatch. And when this is the topic, nothing better than the company’s vice president of health, Sumbul Desaito shed light on what’s to come.
On a visit to the Indian city of Bombay, she spoke with the Hindu BusinessLine and talked about Apple’s work with the Apple Watch, in addition to commenting on topics such as privacy and health resources developed by the company.
When asked about democratizing “health tools” to the general population, Desai stated that Watch resources are not designed to replace traditional health services or provide medical care, but rather, among other things, help prevent people develop diseases.
The statement is in line with what Mark Gurman pointed out as one of the goals of the glucose meter that Apple would be developing: to create a preventive resource that alerts people when they are at a pre-diabetic level — which would be especially useful to avoid type 2 diabetes, for example.
When asked specifically about the development of this feature, Desai simply said that it is a really important area, but one that — like all others — requires a lot of science behind it. Speaking of science, she even highlighted an Apple program that consists of donating watches to researchers as a way to democratize studies in the health area.
When the subject migrated to privacy, Desai said that it is a priority in the company – more than any pioneer in the market. Ensuring it to users was one of the reasons why the heart rate notification feature took more than a year to be implemented on the Apple Watch, according to the executive.
She reinforced this care taken by the company in another interview, granted to the BizzBuzz News. According to the VP, saying that Apple has access to all user data to learn from them “is a mistake”, since they remain on the device and the company does not have access to user data even when they are in the cloud.
The executive also highlighted (again) Apple’s efforts to establish itself with its resources and devices as an aid to preventive health and early detection of diseases — a role that goes against the view that many people have of smart watches as true centrals of health.
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via AppleInsider