Apple Wants to Transform Your Doctor Visits

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is looking to transform your relationship with your doctor.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives spent the first 10 minutes of their live event to talk about how the new Apple Watch is going to change health care.

“Just months ago, we started selling Apple watches to customers, and it’s already changing lives,” said Cook, who added that the smartwatch is “making days better” for its users by getting them moving again.

Now, the company is looking to take it to the next level by partnering with leading hospitals and designing new software platforms like Healthkit and ResearchKit in hopes of turning Apple into a central repository for clinical data and trials.

During a live demonstration, Apple Executive Jeff Williams demonstrated how the Apple Watch helps doctors track their patients and prioritize their schedules using an app called AirStrip, which was designed for health care providers.

Dr. Cameron Powell, one of the co-founders of the app, also took to the stage to explain how physicians can use their smartwatches to monitor patient vitals and even check an unborn baby’s heartbeat with their Sense4Baby technology.

According to AirStrip’s website, Sense4Baby was designed to improve the way doctors treat high-risk pregnancies by providing real-time, remote information directly from the patient’s body (aka their wrist) to the healthcare providers.

Expecting mothers can monitor their contractions and even hear the baby’s heart rate on their watch. They can also send their vitals to their doctor using their smartwatch and receive private responses directly.

The user is authenticated throughout the experience as long as the watch remains on their wrist.

Health care continued as a clear theme of Apple's event when executives introduced their new iPad Pro. During a live demonstration, another doctor used an app to show how it can help doctors explain knee injuries through a digital skeleton.