CEO Cook says healthcare is “ big area for Apple ’ s future ”

Despite lacking new health-related innovations on its most recent iPhone 8 and iPhone X release announcement, Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) is still focused on the healthcare industry, CEO Tim Cook told Fortune magazine. The tech giant has recently made strides towards making its iPhone devices healthcare-connected central depositories, announcing in June it would team with Health Gorilla to add health and diagnostic lab data and with DexCom to integrate G5 CGM support into its Apple Watch, alongside rumors that the company was looking to acquire Aetnahealth. “We’re extremely interested in this area. And, yes, it is a business opportunity. If you look at it, medical health activity is the largest or second-largest component of the economy, depending on which country in the world you’re dealing with,” Cook told Fortune. But Cook said that in exploring innovation in healthcare, Apple had found that most companies were less focused on patients than they were on reimbursements. “And it hasn’t been constructed in a way where the focus at the device level is making great products from a pure point of view. The focus has been on making products that can get reimbursed through the insurance companies, through Medicare, or through Medicaid. And so in some ways we bring a totally fresh view into this and say, ‘Forget all of that. What will help people?'” Cook said. The Apple Watch has been a major focal point for the company’s healthcare efforts, as the devic...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Business/Financial News Diagnostics Research & Development Apple Source Type: news