Verily makes smartwatch for health research
Alphabet’s ‘Study Watch’ to gather complex health data
SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, (Agencies): Alphabet’s life sciences unit Verily on Friday unveiled a wrist-worn “Study Watch” designed to gather complex health data in clinical studies.
Study Watch is meant for research and will be put to work in several studies including a multi-year study to identify patterns in the progression of Parkinson’s disease, according to a blog post by Verily team members David He, Tushar Parlikar, and Harry Xiao.
“The ability to passively capture health data is critical to the success of continuous care platforms and clinical research,” the post from the Google sister company said.
“Study Watch represents another step in our targeted efforts to create new tools for unobtrusive bio-sensing.”
Study Watch appeared styled after a traditional wrist-worn timepiece , and boasted features including long battery life and encryption for stored data.
“Multiple physiological and environmental sensors are designed to measure relevant signals for studies spanning cardiovascular, movement disorders, and other areas,” the blog post said.
“Examples include electrocardiogram, heart rate, electrodermal activity, and inertial movements.”
Verily was part of the Google X lab known for big vision projects such as self-driving cars and internet-service delivered by high-altitude balloons, but was spun into an independent unit at Google-parent Alphabet in mid 2015.
The debut of Study Watch comes as Apple continues to enhance capabilities of its smartwatch along with supporting Health Kit and Research Kit software for use by researchers and care providers as well as individuals interested in fitness.
A secret team is working on enhancing Apple Watch sensors to monitor the blood sugar levels of wearers in what would be considered a diabetes breakthrough, according to a report this week by CNBC news.
The Study Watch has a circular e-ink display which displays the date, time, and some basic instructions for the wearer. “No other information is provided back to the user,” Ver- ily says in a blog post. The simple interface is designed to maximise performance; the wearable can last a week on a single charge, and comes with “a powerful processor” to run important algorithms. There are no apps, or any other functionality normally associated with smartwatches. That means it can focus on capturing and storing raw data that will be useful for medical professionals.
“While numerous wearables exist in the market, we have a specific need outside of these offerings,” Verily adds. The team hopes the watch will be deployed in large research groups and prove useful as an always-on, continuous health tracking tool. Initially, it will be used in a few smaller studies including the “Personalized Parkinson’s Project,” a multiyear project led by the ParkinsonNet, Radboud University and the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands.