Heart Study App to Alert Affected Participants in Joint Study With Stanford Medicine
The app uses Apple Watch’s heart sensor to collect data and
will notify users who may be experiencing atrial fibrillation.
Apple Watch uses a combination of flashing LED lights and
light-sensitive photodiodes to calculate heart rate and rhythm.
Apple today launched the Apple Heart Study
app, a first-of-its-kind research study using Apple Watch’s heart rate
sensor to collect data on irregular heart rhythms and notify users who
may be experiencing atrial fibrillation (AFib).
AFib, the leading cause
of stroke, is responsible for approximately 130,000 deaths and 750,000
hospitalizations in the US every year. Many people don’t experience
symptoms, so AFib often goes undiagnosed.
To calculate heart rate
and rhythm, Apple Watch’s sensor uses green LED lights flashing hundreds
of times per second and light-sensitive photodiodes to detect the
amount of blood flowing through the wrist. The sensor’s unique optical
design gathers signals from four distinct points on the wrist, and when
combined with powerful software algorithms, Apple Watch isolates heart
rhythms from other noise. The Apple Heart Study app uses this technology
to identify an irregular heart rhythm.
“Every week we receive
incredible customer letters about how Apple Watch has affected their
lives, including learning that they have AFib. These stories inspire us
and we're determined to do more to help people understand their health,”
said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO. “Working alongside the medical
community, not only can we inform people of certain health conditions,
we also hope to advance discoveries in heart science.”
Apple is partnering with
Stanford Medicine to perform the research. As part of the study, if an
irregular heart rhythm is identified, participants will receive a
notification on their Apple Watch and iPhone, a free consultation with a
study doctor and an electrocardiogram (ECG) patch for additional
monitoring. The Apple Heart Study app is available in the US App Store
to customers who are 22 years or older and have an Apple Watch Series 1
or later.
“Through the Apple Heart
Study, Stanford Medicine faculty will explore how technology like Apple
Watch’s heart rate sensor can help usher in a new era of proactive
health care central to our Precision Health approach,” said Lloyd Minor,
Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine. “We’re excited to work
with Apple on this breakthrough heart study.”
Doctors and medical
researchers around the world have been using iPhone and Apple Watch to
revolutionize medical studies. Apps created with Apple’s ResearchKit
platform, a software tool researchers use to conduct studies, have
produced insights and discoveries about conditions like autism and
Parkinson’s disease at a pace and scale never seen before. To date,
Apple’s ResearchKit and CareKit platforms have been used by over 500
researchers and more than three million participants.