It seems like Apple gets more involved in healthcare every year, and 2018 was no exception. The two big stories of the year — the Apple Watch ECG and Apple Health Records — were both the culmination of years of rumors and reports. And the company made health news in myriad smaller ways as well.
Read up for a roundup of Apple’s 2018, including a taste of what we might expect in 2019 and beyond....
As predicted, the Apple Watch's version 5.1.2 update went live today, giving anyone in the United States with an Apple Watch Series 4 the ability to take an ECG reading on the wrist. Alongside the active ECG, the Watch's passive irregular rhythm detection feature launched today as well.
"We are confident in the ability of these features to help users have more informed conversations with their...
Apple made big waves at its last September special event by announcing — concurrent with FDA's announcement of its clearance — an ECG reader built into the Apple Watch Series 4. Now, according to a leaked training document obtained by MacRumors, that feature is set to go live in the next WatchOS update, version 5.1.2, due out before the year's end.
While the Watch itself has been on sale since...
A Vitality Group wellness program that allowed participants to pay off the cost of an Apple Watch with regular activity incentives yielded a roughly 34 percent increase in regular physical activity, or an additional 4.8 “activity days” per month, according to a three-year study recently released by RAND. This gain outpaced that of a similar program run by the group that did not employ a “loss-...
Starting this month, UnitedHealthcare members enrolled in the insurer’s incentive-based “Motion” program are able track their daily activity using their personal Apple Watch, or one purchased and earned through the program. This comes roughly half a year after UnitedHealthcare first announced the availability back in March, and a few months after the July rollout planned at the time.
Through the...
Klue, a startup that uses gesture monitoring to track eating behaviors, is turning its attention to Type 1 diabetes. This afternoon the San Francisco-based startup announced that its platform will now include a reminder feature designed specifically to help people with Type 1 diabetes manage their condition around meals.
“The module will send the users a gentle nudge on their Apple Watch when...
Wearables do well for Apple. Apple posted strong numbers in its most recent quarterly financial report. Of the $53.3 billion it generated in quarterly revenue (a 17 percent increase over last year), more than half came from international sales. Of note, the company’s wearable revenue — which includes the Apple Watch as well as AirPods and Beats headphones — has brought in more than $10 billion in...
Look to the skies. A recent report by Nesta, a global innovation foundation, conducted in collaboration with five UK cities suggests that no small number of regulatory and infrastructural obstacles stand in the way of medical drone deliveries in the country. While the technology could increase the testing speed and decrease costs for the UK’s National Health Service, the country would need to...
The United States Patent Office has published a patent from Apple, filed December 18 of last year and not yet granted, for a "sunscreen detector" that could be incorporated into the Apple Watch or the iPhone and could even include augmented reality functionality.
"Disclosed herein is a [ultraviolet-ifrared (UV-IR)] spectrometer for mobile and/or wearable devices," Patent Application 0202927,...
Unlike other years, health wasn't a major focus at this year's WWDC Apple developer conference keynote — the talk didn't feature a single reference to HealthKit, CareKit, or ResearchKit, in fact.
Still, there was some health-related content. Apple delivered on some new fitness tracking features on the Apple Watch, and unveiled a suite of tools aimed at improving users' mental health by helping...
