One of the new features of the Apple Watch Series 4 is that it comes with a built-in ECG. The feature seems to have saved more than its fair share of lives to date, but at the same time it seems that some doctors aren’t a fan of the feature as it seems to be causing undue panic for some of their patients.Some have even said that those aged 65 and below should probably ignore the feature. We’re not sure if that is the best idea, but in a report from Men’s Health, it seems that Apple is working no ensure that the Apple Watch will be able to reduce the number of false notifications from the ECG feature with regards to Afib.
For those who are unfamiliar, Afib can be a precursor to quite a few medical conditions, such as strokes, blood clots, or heart failure. Apple has warned that the ECG feature is not meant to act as a diagnosing tool, but rather as a warning that the wearer should make a trip to their doctor where they can then be properly diagnosed.
According to Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s VP of Health, “Before a notification is given to a person, the feature has to see five instances that look like Afib. By doing that gating within the algorithm, Apple designed toward specificity and toward avoiding unnecessary alerts.”
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