Apple Watch at Brick Gentry P.C.
Apple Watch at Brick Gentry P.C.

Apple Watch, HIPAA, and Mobile Healthcare Industry.

When one of our more tech savvy partners recently showed us his new Apple Watch, it instinctively raised questions as to how would HIPAA regulate its use. One possible answer is that the features of this new Apple Watch may be the linchpin to a whole new culture in the mobile health industry.

Time will determine the answer, but the new Apple Watch does possess interesting features that will impact the mobile health care industry. Along with the Apple Watch, the company offers the HealthKit app, which is an application that can be used by the Apple Watch and is designed to log one’s activity and health data, and the ResearchKit software, which launched in April 2015, Apple has also introduced interesting “tools” in the health care marketplace—for the consumer, the provider, and possibly, other vendors. So, in addition to changing the health care marketplace, the Apple Watch and other applications have opened the door to multiple legal issues that will need to be addressed.

We co-authored “Peeling Back the Apple Watch:  Do HIPAA and the Apple Watch Go Together?” which is published this fall in ABA Health eSource and in Chicago Medicine, We highlight the major role the Apple Watch could play in the development of the mobile healthcare industry, and its possible impact on the regulatory framework used to control patient privacy.

  • Opportunities for consumers
  • Opportunities for healthcare providers
  • Privacy, security and data vulnerability
  • Applicability of HIPAA
  • Applicability of the FTC
  • Patient Safety Concerns
  • Discoverability and evidentiary issues of e-data in court proceedings
  • Future Role of Wearable Devices in Mobile Health

View the full article:  Peeling Back the Apple Watch_ Health Law Section.