Apple Watch Introduces Features That Will Allow Doctors to Remotely Monitor Patients as they Age

Apple, introduced this week, a series of new features for its Apple Watch, which ranges from sleep tracker to hand-washing reminders. 

All features are designed for all consumers except for one, which is an update to the watch's motion sensors designed to help doctors monitor their patients remotely as they grow older.

In a news release, Apple shared that its watch and iPhone can already track activities such as cardio fitness, walking speed and distance, and step length, among other metrics. The data, the tech giant said, the said data will be available in the Health app in the fall.

The iPhone maker also said, because of this latest development, the company now has a way to trace a person's functional or aerobic capacity via the Apple Watch. Meaning, it can already begin assessing the mobility of an individual regularly.

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New Features Most Relevant for Aging Individuals

Most of the things Apple is doing are intended for consumers in general. However, these newly introduced features are most relevant to aging individuals or those who experience incidents that affect their ability to move due to a particular procedure or injury freely.

As part of this latest technological progress, Apple also said it is presently working with orthopedics products firm, Zimmer Biomet, on a service it would include, also known as "mymobility."

"Mymobility" uses the gait metrics of Apple Watch in gathering the double support time and walking speed of a user. Double support time records measurement when both feet of the user are on the ground. The said feature is possible even without GPS.

This can be helpful information for physicians, especially after a procedure like hip or knee replacement, to gauge the recovery rate of their patients between visits to the clinic.

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The 'Six-Minute Walk' 

A lot of doctors whose focus is on heart health can use the "six-minute walk test" to gauge how well an individual is walking or recovering.

Traditionally, patients have needed to go to a clinic to gauge the distance they have walked between markers or a set of cones, while a supervisor is wearing a stopwatch.

According to medicine professor and Mayo Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Chair, Dr. Paul Friedman, the main objective of this feature is not just to find out how one walks in six minutes.

He added that the features aim to see how a person is doing compared to others of the same demographics as well. Additionally, the results as an overall marker of health.

For Friedman, wearables can definitely contribute to the measurement of functional capacity, as in the manner it is changing as time goes by.

Wearables, especially when equipped with the features Apple introduced, also serve as a window to the everyday lives of patients, where Friedman added that they might move differently compared to tests in the laboratory or the clinic.

Even though this new technology can help physicians monitor the decline in patients' physical activities, the professor said, "It is still too soon, to say," if most health developers will combine the new metrics into their current apps.

In this time of the pandemic, wearables can play a vital role as patients might opt to perform such trials or physical exercises at home.

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