Future Apple Watch Could Track Parkinson’s Disease

The Apple Watch is capable of many things such as detecting when a user falls, or an irregular heart beat, and it seems that in the future, it could come with sensors where it could also be capable of detecting if a person may be exhibiting symptoms and signs that they could have Parkinson’s disease or some kind of tremor related health issue.

This is based on a recently discovered patent where it describes how the Apple Watch could use motion sensors to detect movement, and then that movement is further analyzed on the device itself using the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. The upside to this system is that it will be able to provide the wearer with all-day tracking and the resulting data could also be useful for doctors where they can extrapolate that data to determine the amount and type of medication that should be given.

According to the patent’s description, “A patient’s quality of life is largely dependent on how precisely clinicians titrate and schedule the patient’s medications to minimize the patient’s symptoms. This is a challenge for clinicians because each patient has a different combination of symptoms that can change and become more severe over time. Also, in any given day the symptoms may fluctuate based on medications, food intake, sleep, stress, exercise, etc.”

While patents are notoriously difficult to determine if it could become a reality, in 2018, Apple actually debuted a Movement Disorder API that would also help to monitor Parkinson’s. We’re not sure if this patent is an extension of that or something else entirely.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Medical
Tags: Apple Watch, Health, Patent, Smartwatch, Wearable Tech