Paul Morris on January 18, 2017, 10:52 pm

Stanford Offering Grant For Apple Watch Healthcare Innovation

Stanford University is trying to push the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare with technology by launching an exciting new program aimed at faculty members and instructors within the educational institution. As part of the new program, Stanford is offering to giveaway up to 1,000 Apple Watches, as well as $10,000 in cash funding to allow successful applicants to identify how Apple’s intelligent timepiece can be better used in the healthcare space.

The new Apple Watch Seed Program has been put in place as part of an effort to “stimulate and support” the creative juices that are required to come up with new “high impact” projects that will hopefully make a huge splash within healthcare. The newly launched Center for Digital Health’s website provides additional information on the program, highlighting that creative and influential projects are required to try and positively affect the populous.

apple-watch-health

This seed grant program is designed to stimulate and support creative uses of the Apple Watch to address important issues in healthcare. We are particularly interested in high impact projects that will positively influence the selected study population and/or clinical workflow.

Stanford University and Apple have a long and extremely friendly history, making this yet another example of the two forces coming together in the pursuit of greatness. The release of the program will definitely be something that Apple will be excited about, regardless of whether or not the Cupertino-based company had any actual input into the early stages of the initiative.

Apple has increasingly shown a desire to venture into the healthcare market with its products and services in a huge, non-subtle manner. The Apple Watch is currently promoted by the company from a fitness tracking perspective, but it could just be that Apple is crying out for some outside-of-the-box ideas to really put it to good use in healthcare and wellness.

Tim Cook has already been on record as part of an interview to say that “the holy grail of the watch is being able to monitor more and more of what’s going on in your body.” The program seems to be designed to achieve exactly that and see exactly what the Apple Watch is really capable of and how it can be better utilized to its full potential.

(Source: Stanford University)