)
It's an exciting day for Apple Watch (and really all wearables) today as researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine presented preliminary results of the Apple Heart Study.
The landmark virtual study was launched back in November 2017 (funded by Apple Inc.) with over 400,000 participants. The goal was simple and ambitious at the same time: researchers wanted to determine whether a mobile app that uses data from a heart-rate pulse sensor on the Apple Watch can identify atrial fibrillation.
Researchers concluded that wearable technology can indeed safely identify heart rate irregularities that subsequent testing confirmed to be atrial fibrillation, a leading cause of stroke and hospitalization in the United States-and a condition that often goes undetected because many people don't experience symptoms.
)
)
)
Here were the key findings from the study, as reported by Medical Express :
- Only 0.5% of participants received irregular pulse notifications. (An important stat for those who worried about false positives and over-notification.)
- When comparing Apple Watch and simultaneous electrocardiography patch recordings, the pulse detection algorithm (indicating a positive tachogram reading) has a 71% positive predictive value.
- 84% percent of the time, participants who received irregular pulse notifications were found to be in atrial fibrillation at the time of the notification.
- 57% percent of those who received irregular pulse notifications sought medical attention.
According to Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, the results of this study highlight the potential role that digital technology can play in creating more predictive and preventive health care. "Atrial fibrillation is just the beginning, as this study opens the door to further research into wearable technologies and how they might be used to prevent disease before it strikes-a key goal of precision health," he said.
No one's claiming that Apple watch has reached a "medical grade" level, but 84% accuracy is an unquestionably-impressive step toward being able to tap the power of wearables for legit detection of various health conditions, especially those that are typically best diagnosed with continual monitoring.
That's one step forward for Apple, but one giant leap for wearable technology.