Apple Watch

Stanford says over 400k people joined Apple Watch Heart Study, full completion expected early 2019

Chance Miller | Nov 1 2018 - 7:25 pm PT

Back in August, Stanford and Apple announced they were closing their joint Heart Study program to new participants. Now, Stanford Medicine has outlined additional details about the future of the program in a blog post.

According to Stanford Medicine, the Apple Watch Heart Study attracted over 400,000 participants. Currently, Stanford says the study has entered the “final phase of data collection” with full completion expected in early 2019.

Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, said that he hopes the study results in better detail on how wearables like Apple Watch can be used for informing precision health:

“We hope this study will help us better understand how wearable technologies can inform precision health,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. “These new tools, which have the potential to predict, prevent, and mange disease, are finally within our reach.”

Further, Sumbul Desai, whom Apple hired away from Stanford last year, said that Apple is “inspired by the overwhelming response to the Apple Heart Study.”

“We are inspired by the overwhelming response to the Apple Heart Study,” said Sumbul Desai, MD, vice president of Apple. “Through the combined power of our participants, Apple Watch, and Stanford Medicine, it’s one of the largest and most novel atrial fibrillation studies to date.”

Additionally, a paper was published in the American Heart Journal today detailing the design of Apple Watch Heart Study trial. If you’re interested in an inside-baseball look at the design of the program, the on-boarding process, and more, the paper can be read here.