The Apple Watch already has optical sensors that measure the pulse and the level of oxygen in the blood.
Today it is not necessary to say or explain that the Apple Watch is a device that allows users to have a much more precise control of their health. We do not want to say that it is a medical device, far from it, but it is true that having the Apple smart watch on the wrist makes the control of our heart in case of diseases related to this are a little more controlled by the users themselves.
And this is an obvious fact and more since the Apple Watch added in the Series 4 the option to take an electrocardiogram. This measurement is not a medical measurement but if I can help patients with atrial fibrillation to detect it, even to control it more as they report in this study in The Verge.
The FitBit bracelet also appears in this study, but we will focus on the Apple Watch. In this, the question asked by the doctors was very clear: Do people with known atrial fibrillation using smart watches or wearable devices use more healthcare resources and achieve better AF control?. In this case and taking into account the clear question, we get a clear answer: Yes.
125 people underwent this atrial fibrillation study with an Apple Watch on their wrist for 90 days at the University of Utah Health. This group of people was compared with another group of 500 who also suffered from FA disease but did not have an Apple watch or similar bracelet.
The study concludes that users who have these smart devices are more likely to use medical resources to try to keep the disease at bay, while saying that they are not visited more times by the specialist they are simply more likely to undergo what is called ablation. Thanks to Apple smart watches and similar devices, users can receive better and more treatments for their different diseases, in addition to controlling these diseases in a more autonomous way.
It helped myself to detect Atrial Fibrillation. The doctor was freaking out !!