WATCH YOUR HEALTH
Apple Watch’s new features unlock its potential as a medical monitoring device,
SAN FRANCISCO— In the last months of Steve Jobs’s life, the Apple co-founder fought cancer while managing diabetes.
Because he hated pricking his finger to draw blood, Jobs authorized an Apple team to develop a non-invasive glucose reader with technology that could potentially be incorporated into a wristwatch, according to people familiar with the events, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the company.
It was one of manymedical applications that Apple considered for the Apple Watch, which debuted in 2015. Yet because many of the health features proved unreliable or required compromises in the watch’s size or battery life, Apple ended up positioning the device for activity tracking and notifications instead.
Now, the Apple Watch is finding a medical purpose after all.
In September, Apple announced the Apple Watch would no longer need to be tethered to a smartphone and would become more of a standalone device. Since then, a wave of device manufacturers have tapped into the watch’s new features, such as cellular connectivity, to develop medical accessories — such as an electrocardiogram for monitoring heart activity — so people can manage chronic conditions straight from their wrists. What is happening with the Apple Watch is one of the first signs of a leap forward in the utility of wearable devices. Many people had wondered why they would need a smartwatch at all when most already carry more powerful smartphones with them. But as the Apple Watch becomes capable of handling more medical tasks on its own, they may now have an answer.
Adigital health revolution has been predicted for years, of course, and so far has been more hype than progress. But the hope is that artificial intelligence systems will sift through the vast amounts of data that medical accessories will collect from the Apple Watch and find patterns that can lead to changes in treatment and detection, enabling people to take more control of how they manage their conditions instead of relying solely on doctors.
Vic Gundotra, chief executive of AliveCor, a startup that makes portable electrocardiograms, said this would put patients on a more equal footing with doctors because they would have more information on their own conditions.
“It’s changing the nature of the relationship between patient and doctor,” he said, adding that doctors will no longer be “high priests.”
Last month, AliveCor introduced a band for the Apple Watch with a built-in electrocardiogram (EKG), to detect irregular heart activity such as atrial fibrillation, a form of arrhythmia and a potential cause of a stroke. AliveCor uses the watch’s heart rate monitor to alert patients to take an EKG when their pulse quickens or slows unexpectedly.
Apple is also looking for its own medical breakthroughs. Last month, the company announced a joint research study with the Stanford University School of Medicine to see whether the Apple Watch’s heartrate sensors could detect irregular heart activity without an electrocardiogram to notify people who might be experiencing atrial fibrillation.
Separately, Apple is continuing research on a non-invasive continuous glucose reader, according to two people with knowledge of the project. The technology is still considered to be years away, industry experts said.
The current solution used by many diabetics is also coming to the Apple Watch. Dexcom, a maker of devices measuring blood sugar levels for diabetics, said it was awaiting FDA approval for a continuous glucose monitor to work directly with the Apple Watch.
Health care professionals said there was a risk of too much information. Dr. Khaldoun Tarakji, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Cleveland Clinic, said doctors needed to guide patients about who would benefit from more information and how much data was the right amount.
“A wearable device does not equal a wearable physician,” Tarakji said. “As a medical community, we have to be intelligent about how to use these new technologies.”