Apple has always taken the Watch series seriously, making it a standard and continuously enhancing it. Also, Apple’s Investigator Support Program aids researchers in utilizing its wristwatch for medical purposes.
Researchers, physicians, and developers have found state-of-the-art new approaches to study, track, and treat a wide spectrum of diseases since Apple announced ResearchKit and CareKit in 2015.
Today, Apple released a piece highlighting the innovative work being done by scientists studying the heart utilizing the Apple Watch in new ways.
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s Apple Watch ECG app study
At the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, paediatric oncologists Dr. Claudia Toro and Associate Professor Rachel Conyers from Melbourne examine the side effects of paediatric cancer therapy. They are looking at the impact of therapy on cardiac rhythm and developing new therapies.
In the upcoming months, Dr. Conyers and her Murdoch Children’s Research Center team will examine the sensitivity of the Apple Watch ECG app in 40 kids and teenagers. The researchers will then devise methods for patients to take ECGs at any time or place. The team wants to use these insights to comprehend heart damage and identify potential areas for intervention.
Health-related research on firefighters
Dr. Cheong, who focuses on the social and health implications of natural catastrophes and climate change, plans to look into how firefighters’ heart health is affected personally by wildfire smoke.
To further understand how wildfire smoke affects heart health, Dr. Cheong of Texas A&M University and Drs. Brian Kim and Marco Perez of Stanford Medicine will start supplying firefighters with Apple Watches next month.
The research will monitor many variables, including heart rate and rhythm, sleep, blood oxygen levels, and activity data. Also, firefighters will wear an air quality monitor and take part in surveys regarding their sleep, activity levels, and the effects of wildfire smoke.
Apple Watch for AFib detection
At the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Dr. Sebastiaan Blok, head of eHealth at the Cardiology Centers of the Netherlands, and his colleagues are looking at techniques to detect AFib sooner. The researchers have developed a randomized controlled study as part of a bigger endeavor termed HartWacht, the first reimbursable eHealth idea.
As part of the study’s protocol, participants must submit to an ECG once every three weeks or as soon as any symptoms occur. If the researchers get information on an irregular beat, they will contact the subject and educate them on how to do an ECG and report the results.
By three weeks of the study’s end, researchers were able to discover an AFib patient in the intervention group who had no symptoms. Knowing that some drugs might impact heart rhythm, they plan to examine ways to identify possible possibilities to utilize the ECG app to monitor patients from home in the future.