WITH ELDER-SUPPORT SERVICE, APPLE MOVES DEEPER INTO THE HEALTH CARE SPACE
Japan Post is a government-owned holding company that runs a postal service, and it already offered a "watch over" service through which, for a fee, postal employees checked up on elderly people and reported back to their families about their well-being. If all goes as planned, by next year, that same Japan Post worker will show up at elderly people's homes with an iPad loaded with "quality of life" apps that help do things like scheduling medical appointments, hiring home maintenance professionals, volunteering, and coordinating travel. When the postal service employees check in, they’ll also help their customers with any questions about using this suite of apps.
Japan Post’s service, which is designed to be a central coordination point for seniors' lives, could paint a much fuller picture of how lifestyle and health intersect for the insurer.
All data collected through the iPad apps will be anonymized, except in instances when customers choose to opt in so that they can, for instance, share their schedules with the Japan Post employee who works with them.
"We’re going to enable personalized health care on a huge scale," John E. Kelly, a senior vice president who oversees IBM’s research labs and new initiatives, recently told the Wall Street Journal.
See the full story here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3045800/tech-forecast/with-elder-support-service-apple-goes-deeper-into-the-healthcare-space?partner=rss