In an effort to significantly raise its profile in the health care field, Fitbit is partnering with Google to improve its ability to share data with medical professionals. The fitness wearable manufacturer will adopt the recently revealed Google Cloud for Healthcare APIs (application programming interfaces), which promises to make sharing fitness and health data safe, easy, and secure.
For Fitbit, this marks the company’s much anticipated move into the broader health care market. It will allow customers to quickly and conveniently share health data with doctors and others in the health care community. It’s also a bid to compete with other wearable manufacturers such as Apple, which already has its own Carekit platform in place on the Apple Watch.
Google’s fledgling Cloud Healthcare service will provide Fitbit users with an online repository to store their data and includes integration with electronic medical record systems. A specially developed dashboard interface will allow users to view the data, but more importantly, it will give doctors the ability to remotely monitor a patient’s condition, check in on fitness levels, and request appointments. The dashboard could also be used to answer medical questions and provide suggestions on how to treat a wide array of health issues. Future updates to the Google APIs may even be able to help diagnose serious ailments in their early stages, which could help avoid complications and treatments later on.
By signing on with Google Cloud Healthcare, Fitbit will be able to connect with electronic medical records systems much more quickly than it could if it developed its own platform independently. The Cloud Healthcare APIs are designed to be easy to use and integrate, and Google officials say the system is fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (aka HIPAA). This should save Fitbit – and presumably other wearable manufacturers – a lot of time and effort when it comes to enabling their devices to communicate with medical professionals.
It is unclear how long it will be before Fitbit begins integrating Google Cloud into its software and devices. It’s also unknown exactly which current Fitbit wearables will be compatible with the system or if we’ll have to wait until next-generation models are released to gain this new functionality.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.