In February we posted a report titled "The Majority of Top Hospitals in the U.S have Rolled out Pilot HealthKit Programs." In that report we noted that Apple's healthcare technology was spreading quickly among major U.S. hospitals, showing early promise as a way for doctors to monitor patients remotely and lower costs. We also noted at that time that Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles was developing visual dashboards to present patient-generated data to doctors in an easy-to-digest manner.

Today Bloomberg is reporting that "Apple Inc.'s health-tracking software is being connected to patient files at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, marking the largest integration yet for the tech company's foray into the health industry.

The hospital updated its online medical records system this weekend, turning on access to HealthKit for more than 80,000 patients, Darren Dworkin, chief information officer at Cedars-Sinai, said in an interview.

Dworkin further noted that "This is just another set of data that we're confident our physicians will take into account as they make clinical and medical judgments. We don't really, fully know and understand how patients will want to use this and we're going to basically stand ready to learn by what will happen."

Bloomberg added that "The change at Cedars-Sinai allows patients using HealthKit to integrate personal medical information with their patient files, giving online access to their doctors. Weight, blood pressure, steps taken, glucose levels and oxygen saturation levels are among the kinds of data monitored through HealthKit."

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