Smartwatch heads to a medical future

Apple seeks to differentiate gadget from smartphones

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple is trying to turn its smartwatch from a niche gadget into a medical device. In its fourth incarnation, called Series 4 and due out later this month, the Apple Watch will add features that allow it to take high-quality heart readings and detect falls. It’s part of Apple’s long-in-the-making strategy to give people a distinct reason to buy a wrist gadget that largely does things smartphones already do.

Since the Apple Watch launched in April 2015, most people haven’t figured out why they need to buy one. Apple doesn’t release sales figures, but estimates from two analysts suggest the company shipped roughly 18 million watches in 2017. Apple sold almost 12 times as many iPhones, 216 million, last year.

Worldwide, about 48 million smartwatches are expected to be sold this year, compared with nearly 1.9 billion phones, according to the research firm Gartner.

Series 4 pushes the health envelope by taking electrocardiograms, or EKGs, a feature given clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Apple said. The watch also will monitor for irregular heartbeats and can detect when the wearer has fallen, the company said.

Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen said the feature could turn smartwatches “from something people buy for prestige into something they buy for more practical reasons.”

And it could lead some health insurance plans to subsidize the cost of an Apple Watch, Nguyen said. That would help defray the $400 starting price for a device that still requires a companion iPhone, which can cost more than $1,000.

Apple’s watch will use new sensors on the back and on the watch dial. A new app will say whether each reading is normal or shows signs of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rate that increases the risk of heart complications, such as stroke and heart failure.

Apple says the heart data can be shared with doctors through a PDF file, but it’s not yet clear how ready doctors are to receive a possible flood of new EKG data from patients — nor how useful they will find the electronic files.

Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, warned that the EKG feature could spur more tests than necessary, result in unnecessary prescriptions for blood thinners and overwhelm doctors with calls from patients who probably don’t need treatment.

The new Apple Watch also claims to be able to tell the difference between a trip and a fall, and when the latter occurs, it will suggest calling 911 or the equivalent outside the United States. If it receives no response within a minute, the watch automatically will place an emergency call and message friends and family designated as emergency contacts.

The Apple Watch still lacks one feature found in rival wrist gadgets: the ability to analyze sleep quality. Battery life in the new watch remains at 18 hours, meaning it needs a nightly recharge.