Apple Watch debuts ‘powerful’ new health features

The new Apple Watch will include “powerful” new features such as hypertension notifications and sleep scores to keep wearers healthy, the tech giant said.

For hypertension, the Apple Watch Series 11 will work passively in the background to review wearers’ heart sensor data from the past 30 days to determine how their blood vessels respond to heartbeats. The tech company trained the feature with advanced machine learning using studies of over 10,000 participants, then validated it with clinical research of over 2,000 people. 

Apple said it is expected to notify over 1 million people of undiagnosed hypertension within the first year. The feature will be available in the U.S. this month, with FDA clearance expected soon.

“Hypertension is the leading preventable cause of heart attack and stroke, yet millions remain undiagnosed,” said Harlan Krumholz, MD, a cardiologist and scientist at Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital, in a Sept. 9 Apple news release. “Making accurate detection easy and part of daily life can help people get care earlier and prevent avoidable harm.”

The Watch’s sensors will also track sleep data such as heart rate, blood oxygen and respiratory rate before the device delivers a sleep score. The scoring algorithms were developed and tested using over 5 million nights of Apple sleep data and informed by the latest professional guidelines.

The Apple Watch already includes health measures such as high and low heart rate and irregular rhythm notifications, an electrocardiogram app, blood oxygen detection, sleep apnea notifications, and ovulation estimates.

The post Apple Watch debuts ‘powerful’ new health features appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.