Apple has shared a report on how their products are helping users, developers and health organisations make improvements in personal health, research and care, as well as providing detail on its future plans.
The report begins by stating that all health and fitness features are developed with two overarching principles. “They are all subject to rigorous scientific validation processes, in collaboration with medical community experts,” it says. Additionally, “Our features put our users’ privacy at the centre and provide users with protections including transparency and control. Data privacy is critical for sensitive health data.”
The report goes on to share how Apple’s efforts towards health advancement primary fall into two categories: empowering users on their own personal health journeys, and supporting the health ecosystem through collaborations with the medical community.
To empower people on their own journeys, Apple says that it works to keep health data in one place, aims to be an “intelligent guardian” for users’ health, implements features to improve everyday fitness, and fuels innovative third-party health and fitness apps.
Work involved in supporting the health ecosystem through collaboration with the medical community includes equipping researchers to make new scientific discoveries; strengthening the physician-patient relationship through meaningful data; the promotion of healthy lifestyles through Apple Watch; and supporting public health and government initiatives.
Here we will take a look at each of these workstreams to explore Apple’s work in the healthcare environment.
Heath data in one place
“The Health app was Apple’s first health and fitness feature, creating a central and secure location for all of a user’s personal health information on iPhone,” the report states. It adds that the quantity and quality of available insights has significantly increased with the introduction of Apple Watch, and today users “can store over 150 different types of health data from Apple Watch, iPhone, and third-party apps and devices in the Health app, in addition to available health records data from connected institutions in the US, UK, and Canada.”
It notes that users are able to privately and securely access their own health records, including medication records, immunisations, lab results and more from participating health institutions. Additionally, users can “securely share their data with a loved one or a caregiver, so that trusted partner can follow important alerts and changes over time”, with users holding complete control over which data they choose to share and with whom.
Trend analysis is also highlighted in the report: “users can view reports on trends analysis for 20 types of data ranging from resting heart rate to sleep to cardio fitness” which “can highlight significant changes in types of health data in a way that is easy to understand.” Additionally, “if a goal is trending down, users receive coaching on how to turn it around.”
An intelligent guardian for users’ health
“Apple Watch is equipped with features to notify users of possible underlying health conditions, giving them the agency to act on this information,” the report states. “Because Apple Watch is always on the wrist, features like fall detection and Emergency SOS can also help users call for help in the moment they need it.”
It highlights some of the ways in which Apple Watch can support people in this way:
- Heart health: the first Apple Watch included a heart rate sensor and since then more features have been introduced, including high and low heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm notifications, an ECG app using an electrical heart sensor to record an electrocardiogram of the user’s heart to identify signs of AFib, and more.
- Mobility: sensor technology on iPhone and Apple Watch are intended to help users “stay aware of potential mobility issues before they result in a fall, and help them if they do take a hard fall”. Features include fall detection through advanced accelerometer and gyroscope detection and walking steadiness monitor, which uses sensors and custom algorithms to give users an idea of their fall risk over the next 12 months.
- Hearing: users can track the volume of their headphone audio levels over time and see whether they are surpassing World Health Organisation audio exposure limits; additionally, the noise app on Apple Watch uses the microphone to measure ambient sound levels and alerts users if average sound levels remain high for more than three minutes.
- Safety: every iPhone and Apple Watch features an Emergency SOS which allows first responders to access real-time location data, and when users set up their Medical ID in the health app, first responders can access the user’s critical health information such as allergies and medical conditions from the lock screen.
Fuelling innovative third-party health and fitness apps
The report states four main areas in which Apple collaborate with the medical community, including to provide researchers the opportunity to recruit participants from a larger user base, support the physician-patient relationship with meaningful data, promote healthy lifestyles, and support public health and government initiatives. The report shares various examples on each of these topics, available to view here from page 24.
Highlighted work
The report concludes by sharing some of the research underpinning their health and fitness features, along with examples of Apple devices being used in practice in healthcare settings.
The report shares details of a collaboration with researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine to conduct the Apple Heart Study on AFib detection, to validate the irregular rhythm notification on Apple Watch.
The study enrolled more than 40,000 Apple Watch users from 50 states in the USA across eight months. If an irregular heart rhythm was identified, participants would receive a notification on their Apple device along with a telehealth consultation with a doctor and an electrocardiogram (ECG) patch for additional monitoring.
Results found that the probability of receiving an irregular pulse notification was low, with 0.52 percent of participants receiving this notification. 34 percent of those participants had atrial fibrillation on subsequent ECG patch readings. “This resulted in a positive predictive value for the irregular rhythm notification of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.76 to 0.92) among participants who had received an irregular rhythm notification,” the report shares.
One example of Apple devices being used for healthcare purposes is within the NHS Ambulance service. “More than 30,000 iPads have been issued to ambulance crews across England,” the report says. This “allows on-site paramedics to document patient vitals as they assess patients’ injuries and decide whether they should be taken to hospital or treated at the scene. Detailed patient information can also be sent directly to the emergency department for patients that are critically injured, this speeds up patient handover and frees the ambulance to attend to the next call.”
Another example takes place in Denmark, at Odense University Hospital, where the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has used Apple technology to “shorten stays and keep babies with their families,” the report explains. “By sending families home with an iPad and an infant scale, NICU nurses trained parents of premature babies to enter daily weight and other metrics in the Odense My Hospital App. The data was directly recorded into the patients’ medical records allowing nurses to remotely monitor the babies and engage with the families via video call.
The programme reduced the length of stay in the NICU allowing babies to go home sooner, with an average of 23 days of monitoring the babies from home. The programme also noted it was also more cost effective than regular hospital care (15% less costly for infants born under or at 32 weeks, and 5% less costly for infants born after 32 weeks).”
The Apple report can be read in full here.
