18th January 2007

People are already asking whether the Apple iPhone will find applications in the healthcare sector when it is released in June of this year. The handset can sync to a range of wireless signals – it supports quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR wireless technologies – and could, in theory, be used to collect data from wireless home healthcare hubs and route it to central servers. The built in Safari web browser could be used to access medical data and might provide a platform for patient care systems used by domiciliary healthcare workers. The Visual Voicemail features would also may life easier for health workers who are on the move.

In most medical applications the risk of contamination must be kept to a minimum and iPhone’s finger interface software keys would be one way of reducing the risk of a device carrying an infection from one patient to another. Context sensitive keys may also make the handset more flexible and developers should be able to customise the device to support a wide range of medical applications.

The iPhone’s built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a web page, or an image in its proper landscape aspect ratio. This feature would be useful in PACS applications.

The downside is the cost of the iPhone, which will initially sell for $500. Developers adverse to avoid paying ‘Wintel’ type prices steer away from proprietary technology when they design wireless healthcare devices. The Apple iPhone is packed full of proprietary technology and, as most of its key features are protected by patents, the chances of seeing these features appear in other vendors devices is fairly remote – at least in the short term.

The iPhone also has a number of features the healthcare worker is unlikely to use. True a domiciliary might find Google Maps useful if they cannot locate a patient. However the iTunes facility probably means the iPhone itself will go missing very quickly from medical establishments. Perhaps there will be a iPhone Lite version at some point that lets developers build in the features they need to support medical applications - and which network operators would be happy to subsidise in low quantities. Whether this happens will depend on the importance Apple places on the healthcare market. Given that the iPhone is aimed at the consumer market the company may only begin to take an interest in healthcare if developers build medical applications that can be sold directly to the patient as part of a self-help or home monitoring programme.

The iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores, and through Cingular’s retail and online stores. Several iPhone accessories will also be available in June, including Apple’s compact Bluetooth headset.

http://www.apple.com