ECG feature add Apple Watch in Canada beyond fitness tracking Apple Inc. Inserting deeper in health tracking in Canada, adding new features to its Smartwatch, which alert users if they see a potentially dangerous cardiovascular problem and who have their heart to share them with a doctor Allows to take a snapshot of the beats.
Update to expand your Apple Watch beyond fitness tracking in health care is part of the ongoing efforts of Silicon Valley veterans.
Medical experts say that wearables like applewatch can alert more people for serious problems before they have symptoms and help patients better track their health status. But they also warn that false alerts from SmartWatch scare otherwise healthy consumers, by encouraging people to seek unnecessary treatment, they already add more health care systems.
Apple launches two new features in Canada on Monday through a software update for Apple Watch. Health Canada received early this year. They were released in December in the United States and in Hong Kong and 18 European countries in March.
One is an irregular heartbeat alert, which uses all the Apple Watch built-in pulse sensors to alert users if they have symptoms of atrial fibrillation, is a potentially dangerous cardiovascular disorder, which often has some symptoms. Are. It affects approximately 200,000 Canadians and can cause stroke.
A second new feature is that 30-second readout of their heart beating users is known as electrocardiogram (ECG), which they can share with their doctor. It only works on Apple Watch 4, which is the most recent release.
Apple is betting that new features will promote the appeal of Apple Watch, which represents almost half the global market for SmartWatch, using a continuous stream of data captured from SmartWatch to give consumers a better picture of their health is.
"These devices are with you all the time - we often say that they are more often with any loved ones than you," Apple Health Vice President, Sumbul Desai said in an interview last week at Apple's headquarters in Copernican, California. "So how do we take this responsibility and really help someone in their health?"
Heather Ross, director of the General Cardiac Transplant Program in Toronto, said that devices like health tracking devices such as applewatch can make consumers more aware of their health, and doctors already have serious problems to detect and Can allow treatment. Hospital.
Consumer webbals can ultimately help those doctors who closely monitor the patients staying away from large hospitals. "Our ability to monitor surveillance outside large urban areas - and especially to allow patients to stay in their home environment during monitoring - has tremendous potential in countries like Canada," Dr. Ross, a specialist in heart failure, said such a situation where atrial filibration is common.
But in the United States, where Apple's heart-tracking features are available from the end of last year, some doctors are worried that as fitness trackers continue to add new technology which makes them more like medical devices, more people They will be warned about serious health problems they do not have.
Market Targeted for Apple Watch - Gregory Marcus, associate head of cardiology research at the University of California, San Francisco, said, "Young, health-conscious, affluent, especially low risk for atrial fibrillation, is more common among older people." . Dr. Marcus Health is a leading researcher in the eHeart study, which is an online study of cardiovascular disease.
Because smartwatch becomes more common, it can mean that the growing number of healthy people run into the doctor's office due to a vigilance, as already included in the backlog health care system. Dr. Marcus said, "Unintentionally, I have definitely heard about many trips where the primary purpose is to convince someone due to their Apple Watch."
He said that others might be able to get such treatment that they do not need. The most common treatment for atrial fibrillation is that the blood is thin, reducing the risk of stroke but increasing the risk of bleeding.
Apple says that its research has shown that the clock triggers relatively few alerts, and that it generates it is accurate at most times.
In clinical studies presented to the regulators, 12 percent of clock beating information was inconclusive, which means that neither the clock can take a proper readings, or it has raised other types of arrhythmias that were not atrial fibrillation.
Out of the readable alerts, the clock identified a common heart rhythm correctly in 99.6 percent time, and according to a paper Apple published in December, compared to the hospital-grade ECG machine, the atrial fibrillation detected 98.3 percent of the time.
The features of the watch are to give useful information to the people they can take to their doctor, can not diagnose, Dr. Desai said. "We feel that this is an amazing opportunity to educate people about a situation they do not know about, and by doing so we really hope that we can end some worry," he said.