An Apple a day…

The device on your wrist or in your ear can help keep the doctor away

Ba ck in February, Tim Cook told shareholders that Apple planned to "make a significant contribution" in healthcare, a market that rivals like Google and Amazon are also keen on.

The ECG feature incorporated into the Watch Series 4 showed he was for real, but this was a relatively simple adaptation of old technology. Breakthroughs in new areas like non–invasive blood glucose metering for diabetes, on which Apple filed a patent in the summer, are much more elusive. (It’s worth noting that Verily, the company spun off by Google to develop a glucose–sensing contact lens, recently halted work on the project.) Major regulatory and privacy issues also begin to loom here.

Still, any device that’s in constant contact with the skin has myriad health– monitoring potential. We should see more from both Watch and AirPods, but maybe not just yet.

Watch Series 4 has an ECG feature, but there’s better yet to come.

ECG works by wearing your Watch and touching the Digital Crown.