News hardware The Apple Watch used by doctors against Parkinson’s disease
Published on 06/16/2022 at 13:30
It’s not the first time that the Apple Watch has proved useful for the medical sector, and once again it helps support diagnostics and follow-ups in a smart way. Parkinson’s disease can now be diagnosed more efficiently thanks to the watch.
Diagnosing Parkinson’s better with the Apple Watch
This is yet another step in the field of health for the Apple Watch. After many lives have been saved thanks to the watch, it is beginning to be used by professionals in the medical world to monitor patients.
These innovations are currently concentrated in the USA, where a startup called Rune Labs has just obtained official authorization from the US state to use Apple Watch sensors to perform a more detailed diagnosis of patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Concretely, it is an application called StrivePD present on the Apple Watch app store and which uses the accelerometer and the gyroscope to capture the movements of the user and identify any abnormal tremors.
With this information, it will be possible for patients to send them to their specialist doctor for a more precise diagnosis in order to treat the disease effectively. More information is always better.
The Apple Watch in the service of health, this may only be the beginning
Aura Oslapas, one of the creators of the application, insists on her own experience of the disease. She presented her symptoms to her neurologist, which allowed him to quickly diagnose the need for surgery to implant a brain stimulation device.
The application goes further by offering real long-term monitoring. For this kind of pathology which tends to evolve, a patient can frequently change his prescription, and the Apple Watch makes it possible to track the evolution of the patient’s behavior and to adapt the frequency and quantity of medication to be taken.
In the long term, this kind of data could be used en masse when many patients are equipped with it. It’s a valuable research tool for healthcare professionals, desperate for data to improve treatments. and discover new ways to care for patients.
According to StrivePD, all private data is protected and no third party can access it.
The Apple Watch is not at its first attempt. Fall detection automatically contacting emergency services and irregular heartbeat detection warning the user before he realizes it has already saved many lives.