Even before the Apple Watch was officially launched, the rumors about the watch was that Apple was going to position it to be a health device, which we guess it kind of is thanks to features like its optical heart rate sensor that can be used to measure the wearer’s heart rate, which will come in handy during exercise.However it seems that Apple wants to take things further and in a report from CNBC (via MacRumors), the Cupertino company is said to be working with researchers at Stanford and telemedicine vendor American Well to determine whether or not the heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch could actually be used to detect abnormal heart rhythms and other heart conditions.
For example atrial fibrillation could be one of the things the sensor could potentially help detect, and according to Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, “Atrial fibrillation is a common rhythm disorder and knowing someone has it is medically useful because those people might need specific treatments.”
This is actually not the first time that this has been looked into. A report from earlier this year revealed that researchers at the University of California found that the Apple Watch was capable of such detection. In fact we have also heard reports of how wearables with heart rate sensors have inadvertently notified their users of an impending heart attack, but we guess Apple’s interest is in trying to make it more accurate, as opposed to it being a lucky find.
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