WebMD Enters Health Tracker Fray, Launches iPhone App To "Translate" Data From Wearables
By Jof Enriquez,
Follow me on Twitter @jofenriq
The well-known health portal WebMD has launched a health tracking service that collates biometric and exercise data from different wearable devices, and then provide users with contextually relevant recommendations toward building healthy habits.
The service, called Healthy Target, has been added to the latest version of WebMD's iPhone app. According to a company press release, WebMD designed the app as a hub of health and fitness data from various wearable devices — fitness bands, activity trackers, wireless scales, and glucose meters — from different companies, including including Fitbit, Entra, Jawbone, and Withings. WebMD says users can manually enter data into the app, or let the app automatically pull data, such as number of steps, sleep changes, weight, and blood glucose readings, from multiple devices.
According to the press release, the Healthy Target app lets users choose from any or all of six goals: lose weight, eat healthier, be more active, control blood sugar, sleep better, and feel better. The app creates daily and weekly reports of biometric and fitness data to alert the user if goals are being reached. It then recommends "habits" to help users reach those goals. For example, it gives actionable tips, such as "tone up before tuning in" before watching television, or "run in place for 10 minutes before bedtime."
WebMD said that the application is different from other similar services because it not only shows the data in graphs, charts, and other visuals, but also leverages WebMD's trusted, physician-backed content in making sense of all the aggregated data. The company said the app could be useful to those with chronic conditions like diabetes, but also to anyone with a smartphone who wants to become healthier.
"Consumers will appreciate the ease of incorporating their biometric data into our Healthy Target program and the health insights and recommendations offered to help them sustain a healthier life," David Ziegler, WebMD's director of product management, said in a press release. "With more than 40 percent of consumers using mobile devices to access health information, the time is right for a mobile app that can help translate data into life-improving insights."
An article in Venture Beat claims that WebMD's tracker "adds more noise to the increasingly noisy consumer health data picture," referring to the recent wave of announcements from the likes of Samsung and Apple about services tho collect personal health data from wearables. Google is also reportedly entering the race with its rumored Google Fit service.
Venture Beat notes that WebMD's new health tracker, which runs within its existing iPhone app, seems redundant to Apple's own HealthKit initiative.
However, in a recent article on Mashable, WebMD director of product management David Ziegler said, "We'll be working with HealthKit — not against it. Apple's goal is to visualize and bring all the data together — not to provide its own content."