The largest effort ever! Apple enters the medical field, planning to launch an AI doctor next year

Apple's Health Strategy Takes a Major Turn, AI Doctors Set to Go Live!

Apple is preparing its largest-ever deployment of a healthcare strategy, with a new health application and AI doctor service plan codenamed "Project Mulberry" expected to launch alongside iOS 19.4 as early as next spring or summer. This initiative aims to fulfill Cook's grand promise that "Apple's greatest contribution to society will be in the field of healthcare."

Breaking Through Current Limitations: Going Beyond the "Laboratory on Your Wrist"

Although the Apple Watch has been marketed as a "medical laboratory on your wrist," its health features are actually limited by several factors. The non-invasive blood glucose monitoring project has made key progress but will still take years to realize, the blood oxygen sensor was removed due to patent disputes, and the hypertension monitoring feature continues to face development hurdles.

In the face of these challenges, Apple's health team has turned to a potentially quicker strategy: AI-driven health services that can, to some extent, simulate the functions of a real doctor.

The core idea of this service is: The upgraded health application will continue to collect data from the iPhone, Apple Watch, headphones, or third-party devices, and then the AI will provide personalized health improvement suggestions based on this information. According to Bloomberg, Apple is currently using data from its internal physicians to train the AI agent system.

The plan, initially called "Project Quartz," has now evolved into a cross-departmental project that integrates Apple's artificial intelligence team and medical expert resources.

Plans to Introduce External Medical Experts to Create "Reminder" Videos

Apple also plans to bring in external medical experts, including specialists in sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health, and cardiology, to create related videos. These contents will explain certain health conditions to users and provide lifestyle improvement suggestions. For example, if the health application detects that a user's heart rate trend is poor, it may pop up a video about heart disease risks.

Apple is establishing a facility near Oakland, California, for doctors to shoot these health videos. Additionally, Apple is looking for a well-known doctor to host this new service, tentatively named "Health+."

Capturing the Nutrition Market: Directly Competing with MyFitnessPal and Noom

The food tracking feature will become a key function of the upgraded application, a field that Apple has previously barely ventured into. While the current health application allows users to input data on carbohydrates and caffeine, the new version will significantly expand these features, directly challenging services like MyFitnessPal and competing to some extent with weight management applications like Noom.

Even more surprisingly, Apple is also developing a feature that utilizes the device's camera, such as the rear camera of the iPhone. This design aims to allow the AI agent to study users' exercise situations and provide suggestions for improvement, potentially integrating with the existing Fitness+ platform in the future