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Apple Health VP talks Heart Study results and more during event at San Francisco Apple Store

Apple is holding a string of heart health-related events at its retail stores this month in honor of Heart Month. Last night, such an event was held at Apple’s Union Square store in San Francisco, and the company’s health vice president Sumbul Desai was in attendance. Desai talked about the Apple Heart Study and more.

As outlined by CNBC, the event started with a panel focused on heart health and Apple’s growing health ambitions. Desai plays a big role in Apple’s health efforts. She joined Apple from Stanford Medicine in 2017. Also on yesterday’s panel were celebrity fitness trainer Jeanette Jenkins and American Heart Association president-elect Robert Harrington.

Speaking at yesterday’s event, Desai said that working at Apple gives her the opportunity to have an impact at scale. “I went to medical school to have an impact and now I have the opportunity to be able to do that at scale,” she said.

Further, Desai and Harrington said that the results from Apple’s Heart Study will be released on March 16th. In November, Stanford touted that over 400,000 people joined the Apple Watch Heart Study.

At yesterday’s event, Harrington outlined some of what he hopes to learn from the results:

He noted that the medical field still doesn’t know the incidence of atrial fibrillation, a condition that puts people at risk for strokes, in a population. It’s uncommon for such a large population of people to be studied, as most clinical research is limited to a few thousand people.

For her part, Desai added that she is interested to see how doctors manage the new information provided by the Apple Watch and how consumers react to it. She also noted that she and other Apple employees read letters sent to Tim Cook about health-related stories. “It drives the work we do at Apple,” Desai said.

The Today at Apple session ended with Jenkins leading a walk around the block so attendees could try out the fitness tracking features of their Apple Watch.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is the editor-in-chief of 9to5Mac, overseeing the entire site’s operations. He also hosts the 9to5Mac Daily and 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcasts.

You can send tips, questions, and typos to chance@9to5mac.com.

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