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Apple Health

521 'Apple Health' stories July 2011 - September 2018
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When the Apple Watch was originally released in 2015, it was pitched as a great watch, an intimate way to communicate, and a comprehensive fitness device. While the original Apple Watch (later renamed Series 0) lacked GPS and was generally a slow device, it has shown dramatic improvements year over year particularly for Apple’s health initiatives.

When Apple released the Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches, it added heart rate monitoring for Apple Health. When you enable heart rate monitoring, you  can also turn on heart rate notifications, so you know if your heart rate remains above or below a chosen beats per minute (BPM), or to occasionally check for an irregular heart rhythm. Irregular rhythm notifications are available only with watchOS 5.1.2 or later in certain countries.

With Apple Watch Series 4, Apple added a electrocardiogram monitoring (also known as ECG and EKG). The ECG app on Apple Watch (Series 4 or newer) can record your heartbeat and rhythm using the electrical heart sensor and then check the reading for atrial fibrillation (AFib). It then records that information into the Apple Health app.

Since the release of Apple Watch, there have been countless stories of people’s lives being saved by the health advancements in Apple Watch and Apple’s Health initiatives.

If you have an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer, here’s a how to guide on how to take an ECG.

Apple also includes a Health app on the iPhone where it easy to learn about your health and start reaching your goals. It consolidates data from iPhone, Apple Watch, and third-party apps in one place.

Top Stories on Apple Health

After Apple Watch ECG, we could see Force Touch-based blood pressure readings

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 17 2018 - 5:40 am PT
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Apple made headlines when it announced that the Apple Watch Series 4 offered the ability to take ECG readings, with FDA clearance for the feature. A subsequent report revealed that the device is more than 98% accurate at detecting AFib.

A report today suggests that it could soon be just as easy to obtain a blood pressure reading for an iPhone or Apple Watch, using Apple’s 3D Touch or Force Touch technology …


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Health features could see Apple Watch Series 4 hit Swatch, Tissot, Mondaine and Fossil

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 13 2018 - 7:38 am PT
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The Apple Watch has been in large part selling to people who don’t wear conventional watches, but it has also taken significant market share from traditional watch brands.

That latter trend could be significantly accelerated by the new heart-related features in the Apple Watch Series 4, think some commentators – for one simple reason …


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CNBC: Apple developing chips for processing health data on new fitness sensors

Avatar for Zac Hall Aug 14 2018 - 11:07 am PT
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CNBC has published a new report that highlights recent job listings from Apple and what they could mean for future products. Specifically, the report cites three job listings from this summer that relate to sensor processors and fitness sensors, which CNBC believes could hint at a future chip dedicated to processing data from health sensors like on Apple Watch.


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Apple’s new Health Records feature touts nearly 80 supported health systems

Avatar for Michael Potuck Aug 8 2018 - 12:41 pm PT
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Apple opened up its new Health Records API just over two months ago to let developers create new apps and improved experiences for patients, particularly as they visit multiple doctors or health systems. Now we’re hearing more about the standard on which the Health Records platform is based, along with new institutions that have started supporting Health Records.


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All Apple Park employees getting standing desks because ‘sitting is the new cancer’

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jun 14 2018 - 4:01 am PT
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Musk mocks Apple | Aerial photo of Apple Park campus

One of the things we learned during David Rubenstein’s interview of Tim Cook, posted in full yesterday, was that all employees at Apple Park are getting standing desks.

We have given all of our employees, 100%, standing desks. If you can stand for a while, then sit, and so on and so forth, it’s much better for your lifestyle.


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Apple Watch again credited with saving a life as it leads New York man to discover erupted ulcer

Avatar for Chance Miller May 2 2018 - 4:57 pm PT
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Update: Yet another story has now emerged of the Apple Watch saving a man’s life. This time, Men’s Journal has the full story.

Time and time again, Apple Watch has been credited with warning users of severe health problems. Now, a new story out of New York shows yet another case where a person’s Apple Watch was first to tell them to seek medical attention…


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‘Father of iPod’ Tony Fadell thinks Apple needs to tackle iPhone addiction, company reportedly working on it

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2018 - 6:37 am PT
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The former Apple engineer Tony Fadell, nicknamed the ‘father of the iPod,’ thinks Apple has a responsibility to tackle the problem of iPhone addiction.

He says what is needed is the equivalent of nutrition advice – where we know which food types in what quantities are healthy – and then a way to track our ‘intake’ …


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Comment: Having tried an iPhone-based medical consultation, I’m sold

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 6 2018 - 7:42 am PT
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Getting a conventional doctor’s appointment can be one of life’s more annoying experiences. In the UK, at least, you can’t always get one at short notice unless it’s an emergency. You may not be able to get a convenient time-slot. And you’ll often have to take time off work to travel perhaps an hour or more round-trip for a consultation lasting ten minutes.

Video consultations have been available for some time, but it’s only recently – thanks to a trial here in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) – that I got around to trying it for myself. And I’m sold …


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Concept: Imagining a more friendly and motivational Health app

Avatar for Michael Steeber Mar 8 2018 - 8:14 am PT
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The introduction of iOS 8 in 2014 brought the Health app to our iPhones and marked a milestone in Apple’s efforts to help people live healthier lives. The success of the Apple Watch in the following years brought a renewed consciousness to healthy living to millions of customers. Now that the Health app is turning into a critical tool for managing medical data, let’s take a look at how it could become even more friendly and motivating to a growing community.


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Apple clinics to offer ‘world’s best healthcare’ to employees, act as test-bed for consumer offerings

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Feb 27 2018 - 4:07 am PT
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Apple is launching medical clinics intended to offer employees and their families the ‘world’s best healthcare.’ The clinics are branded as AC Wellness, but job listings describe the company as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple.

While Apple is recruiting for just two clinics so far, one of them based at the Apple Park campus, a job listing states that the aim is to create ‘multiple, stunning state-of-the-art medical centers’ …


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Opinion: Nokia hasn’t been healthy for Withings, Apple should consider HealthKit hardware

Avatar for Zac Hall Feb 19 2018 - 9:03 am PT
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Nokia’s ownership of Withings has been incredibly messy. After buying Withings in mid-2016, Nokia sued Apple over unrelated patents which resulted in Withings digital health products being pulled from the Apple Store.

While that dispute has since been resolved, Nokia now says it is reviewing its digital health business altogether. The result could be positive or negative for Withings customers depending on where ownership lands.

As a Withings customer myself, my hope is that Apple buys the digital health product business from Nokia — if only to do the bare minimum to maintain hardware that works with Apple HealthKit.


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Large-scale study shows Apple Watch & other wearables can detect early signs of diabetes

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Feb 7 2018 - 7:37 am PT
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A large-scale study involving more than 14,000 Apple Watch and Android Wear users has shown that heart-rate data from the wearables can detect early signs of diabetes.

The study – a collaboration between UC San Francisco and digital health startup Cardiogram – measured the accuracy of a new diabetes detection algorithm on a cohort which included 463 participants with previously-diagnosed diabetes.


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