Today's active seniors are all about staying active and taking their health to the next level.
Now, thanks to new smart technologies, this will become a cinch for tech-savvy seniors when iOS8 is released this fall. Key features in the new operating system will allow seniors—and their younger counterparts—to track diet, fitness routines and lifestyle activities all in the same program!
If you haven’t been able to keep up with the latest tech news, our guide to tech-savvy retirement living can help you stay up-to-date on new innovations that are positioned to keep you healthy for the long-term.
Health Kit by Apple is Designed to Make Tech Savvy Seniors' Lives Healthier
When Apple's updated operating system, iOS8, is released this fall, your iPhone will manage the data from your myriad fitness apps—from your calorie counter and fitness guide to your heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol monitors— all in a single program.
Allow us to introduce you to Health Kit, Apple’s new all-in-one wellness app that organizes all your health and fitness data in the cloud so it’s always right at your fingertips.
The new Health app allows you to:
- Track all data collected from each of your health or fitness apps in one place
- Create an emergency card with critical health information (blood type, allergies, current medications) that medical personal can access from your Lock screen if you’re unable to share your medical history.
- Share data between apps or with your medical team
Your Health Dashboard
Because it's a smart technology, the app is very intuitive.
You can program Health Kit to work for you by how you learn and prefer to organize information. If you need to see your fitness information first thing in the morning to get motivated, pop this onto the front page. For others it helps to see a list view of features such as diagnostics, fitness, medications, lab results, sleep patterns vitals and so on.
You can also easily keep track of your weekly and monthly "stats" with colorful bar graphs that make reading comfortable- no squinting or searching, just simply ready for you to read.
The Emergency Card Feature
Here, users have an opportunity to record all of their vital information from emergency contacts and phone numbers to vital information about personal health. Information such as allergies to medications and foods or if pre-existing health concerns exist could help save your life.
This feature is easy to access from the lock screen so information can be gathered by emergency services if the situation arises.
Data Sharing
Likely the most innovative aspect of the app is the ability to share information with care providers like the Mayo Clinic-- just one of the nation's health institutions ready to connect with their patients via the Health Kit.
One of the biggest complaints of health care consumers today is how briefly they see or interact with their doctors during a visit to the office. To help optimize face-time with your health care providers, you get to choose what type of information is shared. You could, for example, program the app to share all of your recorded blood pressure readings (or other data from your monitoring apps) with your doctor.
With a regular flow of information like this, your doctor will be able to better prepare for your checkups.
You're in control of your health, your way with this app.
You get to decide how you want your information shared and who you would like it shared with. You will even be able to share your nutrition information with your fitness app to help give you a more idea of how you are burning calories and optimize your dietary focus.
As American health care becomes more and more help-your-self, Apple’s new Health app will help seniors keep living well
