One of the new features announced in yesterday’s Google hardware event was Loss of Pulse Detection, found in the new Pixel Watch 3.
This would seem a great feature to pair with the Apple Watch’s own proactive monitoring and emergency alert feature Fall Detection …
Top comment by thawk9455
I could see this being really nice, especially in situations where you aren't home alone but your emergency contacts are alerted to the event too. Imagine your spouse having a cardiac event somewhere else in, or around, your house/property and getting the alert on your phone/watch that their device has made an emergency call. You may be able to initiate CPR much more quickly than finding out minutes or hours later.
When my grandmother died I was able to use the raw data from her Apple Watch to identify the exact moment her heart stopped (the moment no more heart beat was found). She was found hours later when a family member stopped by her house. I can see other cases where it could be days before anyone knows something happened.
9to5Google reports that it works in a similar way to Fall Detection – detecting the event, asking the user whether they are ok, and calling emergency services if they don’t respond.
This is a new feature for any wearable that uses the heart rate monitor and other sensors to see if you’re having a loss-of-pulse event. This can include cardiac arrest, respiratory or circulatory failure, overdose, or poisoning.
Once detected, it will prompt users to confirm they are okay. If there’s no response or motion, the Pixel Watch 3 will place a call to emergency services with your location and context. This feature is launching first in Europe this September with regulatory approval in other countries coming.
While Fall Detection would work in instances where the wearer was standing when the event happened, it wouldn’t necessarily be triggered if someone’s heart stopped while they were sitting, or in bed, at the time.
CNET reports that “out of hospital cardiac arrest” results in many deaths, since immediate medical assistance is required to save the life of the victim, and many of these cases happen while someone is alone at home.
“We know that a lot of the time, these events are unwitnessed, so no one is able to help or make a call on someone’s behalf,” Dr. Jake Sunshine, a research scientist who worked on the new feature, told CNET […]
Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist with National Jewish Health, said the new smartwatch feature appears to be targeting “out-of-hospital” cardiac arrest, which is a “major killer” since it requires immediate help. While “the devil is in the details” in terms of how it’ll actually work to help people (and it relies on people actually wearing the Pixel Watch 3, of course), anything that gets emergency help to a person with lost or weakened pulse activity could save a life.
“Anything that can move the needle on these very lethal, high risk issues is amazing,” Freeman said.
Image: Google
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