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Apple held its September event today, which included a handful of exciting
hardware announcements. One of the most exciting things Apple announced was the new
Apple Watch Series 6 which includes sensor updates that we think will be exciting for those in
the healthcare industry. This article summarizes the announcements and talks about potential
future applications.
The new Apple Watch Series 6 includes a new sensor that monitors blood oxygen levels, which
is a key indicator of overall health. Paired with the ECG sensor that debuted in series 5, the
Apple Watch continues its evolution as a health-oriented tool for wearers.
In order to leverage this new technology in research, Apple announced they will partner with a
variety of other institutions for various causes. University of California, Irvine, and Anthem will
focus on research to control and manage asthma by correlating blood oxygen levels with other
health metrics. The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
at the University Health Network will partner to better understand how blood oxygen
measurements can be used to manage heart failure. Finally the Brotman Baty Institute for
Precision Medicine and the University of Washington School of Medicine will partner with Apple
to research how the Apple Watch's health sensors could be used to detect early signs of
illnesses such as flu or coronavirus.
At Wunderman Thompson Apps we have partnered with a variety of Healthcare Providers and
Pharmaceutical companies to help streamline drug trials. We have built apps that use
the accelerometers in iPhones as well as the Apple Watch to measure the effectiveness of
patients with arthritis to measuring the amount and types of movement patients make when they
sleep. We are excited to see how we can bring this new technology to our clients and will be
experimenting with different applications in our technology labs as soon as the watches are
released.
If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to apps@wundermanthompson.com.
