The average healthy adult’s heart beats more than 100,000 times each day. Each beat of the day creates images that most people don’t even notice. But Apple Watch makes it possible to see things that were previously unseen. before Heart health features include fast and slow heart rate alerts. Cardio Fitness Reminder With Irregular Heart Rhythm notifications, the ECG app and AFib history all enable Apple to provide a continual view of our users’ health improvements with actionable insights.
The same cutting-edge technology that provides users with insights to better understand their health. There is also the potential to open the world to new discoveries. to the research and medical community as well. Since Apple introduced ResearchKit and CareKit in 2015, researchers, physicians and developers have come up with innovative ways to study, monitor and treat a wide range of conditions.
Apple has also launched the Investigator Support Program, which helps foster new discoveries. Through the program, Apple is providing Apple Watch devices to researchers. enable researchers to invent new health research including the science of understanding the heart. Apple showcases the cutting-edge work of health researchers around the world who use Apple Watch to study the heart in an unprecedented way.
Associate Professor Rachel Conyers and Dr Claudia Toro, senior pediatric oncologists from Melbourne, Australia, spend most of their time caring for children. At the tertiary hospital for pediatric cancer and toxicity research on pediatric cancer treatment under Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the two teamed up to study how cancer treatment might affect heart rhythm. and try to look for modern solutions to prevent such problems inspired by the patients of both Both in successful and tragic cases.
Toxicity in cancer therapy may cause heart rhythm disturbances, such as long QT syndrome, which can be life-threatening. Long QT syndrome causes an irregular heart rhythm. This causes the blood flow through the heart to take longer.
Dr Conyers said that children undergoing cancer treatment are predisposed to QT prolongation and therefore need regular screening at least once a week with a 12-point ECG. Out-patients’ symptoms must also be monitored.
“I read the Apple Heart Study and thought it might be useful for pediatric cancer,” Dr. Conyers said. But now we know that new cancer therapies (such as some inhibitors or immunotherapy) can cause cardiac arrhythmias within 48 hours of administration. So there is a huge cognitive gap in toxicity at the moment.”
In the coming months, Dr. Conyers and a team at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute will begin a study on the sensitivity of the Apple Watch ECG app in 40 juvenile patients1. The team will find a way for patients to take their ECG with them wherever and whenever they can. And it is hoped that through those insights, the facts about cardiotoxicity can be understood and uncovered potential inhibition opportunities.
Every San Francisco Bay Area resident remembers the day when the sky turned orange. It happened on September 9, 2020. Dr. So-Min Cheong, Associate Professor of Public Service and Administration at Bush School at Texas A&M University in Palo Alto. California at that time
“I still have pictures of that day on my iPhone,” says Dr. Cheong.
California was devastated by wildfires in both 2020 and 2021, so Dr. Cheong, who studies the social and health impacts of environmental disasters and climate change. They saw an opportunity to study the personal effects of wildfire smoke on firefighters’ heart health.
“I think general health advice or deterrence measures are not good enough,” explains Dr. Cheong. Therefore, each person is different in terms of health. And I would like to learn more about it.”
Dr. Cheong knows from her connections in the research community that the Apple Watch can help keep the type of health record she needs. “A friend of mine at Stanford has shared her experience with an Apple Watch and is known for the accuracy of her heart rate data,” she says. not intrusive to obtain more accurate health measurement data”
Next month, both Dr. Cheong of Texas A&M University and Dr. Brian Kim and Dr. Marco Perez of Stanford Medicine will begin attaching Apple Watches to firefighters to study the effects of wildfire smoke on heart health. Wildfire season begins in spring in Texas and summer in California. with more than 200 firefighters from various locations these to participate in the research study.
Studies will use Apple Watch to track heart rate and rhythm, sleep, blood oxygen and blood pressure. activity data and more. Firefighters also wear air quality tracking devices and complete surveys about sleep, activity and symptoms related to bushfire smoke.
“Firefighters will benefit from the research,” said Dr. Cheong. “We know that wildfire smoke has direct health effects. And studies like this will enable real-time results to be seen.”
But she didn’t want to summarize how the study worked at this point, especially since the study’s primary focus was on the individualized health data and accuracy the Apple Watch provided.
“Research like this has never been done before. Therefore, it is not a matter of proving or disproving the hypothesis,” said Dr. Cheong. “It is an exploratory research and the results will help us understand the accuracy of this type of analysis in order to generate individual interventions. We also believe that further nature research on this subject will help us better understand high-risk groups.”
According to European epidemiologist experts, Rates of atrial fibrillation (AFib) in the European Union are expected to double by 2060. AFib is a very common arrhythmia that can have serious consequences if left untreated. increased risk of stroke or heart failure
Dr. Sebastiaan Blok, director of eHealth at the Netherlands Heart Center, and team are studying ways to detect AFib early at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. The researchers developed a randomized controlled trial. And it’s part of a larger study called HartWacht, the first reimbursable eHealth concept.
in the netherlands “There are approximately 300,000 people diagnosed with atrial fibrillation,” said study lead author Dr Nicole van Steijn. “And there are about 100,000 others who have the condition without knowing it. Mostly because they don’t have any symptoms.”
The study is expected to include more than 300 patients older than 65 and who meet the AFib risk criteria. Half of the participants, known as the experimental group, will wear Apple Watches. for at least 12 hours a day
“The Apple Watch is a widely used and reliable consumer wearable. We think this is a very good device to use as part of our research studies to understand how we might be able to integrate into the broader public health system,” Dr Blok said.
Participants will have one ECG every 3 weeks or when they first feel symptoms. according to the research design of the group If the subject received an irregular heart rhythm notification Researchers then contact the participants and recommend ECG testing and share the results.
Within 3 weeks of the study The researchers were able to identify participants with AFib in the experimental group who had never had the condition before.
This study is the beginning of what the researchers want to understand using the Apple Watch. In the future, the researchers plan to explore ways to explore potential opportunities for using ECG apps to monitor patients from home. Because some medications can change your heart rhythm. They also looked at ways to use Apple Watch to monitor heart failure patients from home as it is such an expensive disease and to identify biomarkers that can predict relapse.
“We will continue to invent new opportunities. further using science and technology,” Dr. Blok said.