Watch out. Apple with Mayo is heading your way

Hmmm . . . That combination is pretty tasty in a Waldorf salad, but it’s a bit hard to think of other recipes that do appeal. The Apple Watch is very attractive—one analyst hoped it would be stylish enough to wear to the Oscars. (I’ll let everyone know what I decide to do next year). But from a healthcare and health insurance Internet of Things perspective, questions still remain. Early information is that the Apple Watch’s biomonitoring functions are pretty modest: pulse and movement (and distance?). Did anyone say fitness band? Somehow “killer app” doesn’t sound quite right in this context, but that is the real question in terms of making people with serious medical conditions (or serious medical vulnerabilities) want to buy the Apple Watch. In roughly ascending order of technical and ergonomic challenges—temperature, blood pressure, glucose levels, blood chemistry of all different types, urine analysis, and (why not?) genome-driven personalized medicine—are off in the future, in some cases well beyond the horizon for a wearable (time telling, messaging, location-revealing) device. Meanwhile there is always next year’s Oscars. btw: about the Mayo: https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/06/02Apple-Releases-iOS-8-SDK-With-Over-4-000-New-APIs.html