The CARIN Alliance is a fact. It is a joint venture between Apple, Google, Microsoft and leading hospitals and health insurance companies. It is expected to be the largest medical database in the United States.
The truth is that all three companies have long had a place for users. In the past, Apple has partnered with several different hospitals in America to provide patients with the ability to view important data such as lab results, medications, etc. through the Health app on iOS devices. Similarly, Microsoft with HealthVault in which corresponding information for its users is stored.
In general, recording health information and medical data on a platform is very useful and over the years it becomes necessary. In the past, when someone was using applications and decided to switch to Microsoft for example, they lost their medical history. Now with the CARIN Alliance this has changed. This is because it provides a coalition of health and technology companies.
For now, the joint venture of Apple, Google and Microsoft is still in the planning stage, but is expected to bring some results by the end of the year. For now, it only concerns the US, but it is expected to reach other countries soon.
Obviously, there are some downsides to this partnership. There is a riskthat insurers will demand full access to the medical data of gadget. It may also be rewarded with low insurance rates for the time being, but this risk goes against the idea of privacy.
Such a database is expected to have enormous net worth, as it will contain medical information of millions of Americans and later users from all over the world. The second issue that arises is that it may be hacked at some point in its release and users' personal data may be at risk. Thus, the CARIN Alliance is called upon to address any problem that arises and provide for various risks before its release.
