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Apple Watch Saves (Yet) Another Life

Posted on May 3, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: The Apple Watch saved a man who suffered a ruptured ulcer.

When Apple first released the Apple Watch, many people didn’t know why they would need one. Many people still don’t know why they might need one, just as many people still don’t see a need for a computer, a smartphone, a car, or electricity. The main key behind the Apple Watch is its real-time health monitoring abilities, which is something you can never get from a desktop/laptop computer or even a smartphone. Only a wearable computer like the Apple Watch can passively monitor your health at all times.

If you don’t value your health, then a wearable computer isn’t for you. For everyone else who does value their health and their lives, a wearable computer is fast becoming a necessity, especially for older people.

32-year old William Monzidelis was at work in April when he started feeling dizzy and headed to the bathroom. Shortly after, he started bleeding and got an alert from his Apple Watch warning him that his heart rate was at an alarming level. The device recommended Monzidelis seek medical attention. His mother, Nancy, rushed him to the hospital and that helped save his life by getting immediately medical attention.

Without the Apple Watch, Monzidelis might have just ignored the dizziness and bleeding, assuming it would simply pass, and then he would likely have died. By getting early warnings of potentially fatal health problems, he got to the hospital in time for doctors to save his life.

Stories about the Apple Watch saving people’s lives are becoming routine. If you’re interested in living a healthy life, then you have a need for the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch may not be useful for web browsing or taking notes, but for what it can do, it does well that no other type of device can do. Wearable computers are no longer a luxury but a necessity. Provided, of course, that you actually want to live.

Apple Watch Saves Another Life

Posted on May 1, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple Watch alerted an 18-year old girl to an undiagnosed kidney problem.

For anyone who still doesn’t know what good an Apple Watch or similar wearable computer might do for them, ask them if they want to stay alive. If they do, then they’ll find a use for a wearable computer like the Apple Watch.

In florida, an 18-year old girl wearing an Apple Watch noticed her heart rate drastically changed, alerting her to seek medical attention. The girl’s mother took her to a clinic and later to an emergency room where doctors discovered the girl had an undiagnosed kidney disease. Without this notification, this kidney disease would not have been detected until much later, if at all.

The mother wrote to Apple, thanking them for the Apple Watch that potentially saved the girl’s life. If an Apple Watch can help save lives through real-time health monitoring, why wouldn’t everyone want one to monitor their own health and warn them of possible problems ahead of time?

The Apple Watch’s real-time health monitoring is the key feature that makes wearable computers so useful. The ability to make phone calls through an Apple Watch is simply a nice bonus but not necessary. If you value your health, you should get a wearable computer like the Apple Watch. If you don’t care whether you live or die, feel free to ignore technology that could save your life one day.

The iPhone as a Medical Device

Posted on April 4, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, Software Leave a comment

What it is: A study found that an iPhone app proved more accurate in measuring blood flow than traditional methods.

The iPhone has wiped out multiple separate items including the iPod, voice recorders, GPS devices, and paper maps. Now the iPhone may be targeting the health industry. According to a study by the University of Ottawa, scientists found that a smartphone app performed a better wrist-artery blood flow assessment than a traditional physical examination when used on patients undergoing coronary angiography.

A total of 438 participants were split into two groups: one group was assessed using the app and the other was assessed using a “gold-standard traditional physical examination”, known as the Allen test. The smartphone app had a diagnostic accuracy of 94 per cent compared with 84 per cent using the traditional method.

While the study cautions that this particular smartphone app isn’t certified for medical care, it does demonstrate how technology has made the iPhone versatile enough to perform tasks traditionally found only in dedicated equipment.

What this means is that in the future, health monitoring apps for smartphones and wearable computers can give individuals the chance to monitor their own health symptoms accurately. Doing so allows the user to track their health symptoms with an accuracy not possible in the past. Would such a health app ever been possible with a Blackberry or Nokia smartphone?

In the future, expect your iPhone to help you monitor your health and help you stay on track to whatever dietary or health goals you might have. With health care getting more expensive, technology can help lower costs and bring health care to the people who need it (or at least the ones who can afford an iPhone).

The Apple Watch as Crime Evidence

Posted on March 29, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple Watch may hold the key to defining the time of death of a murder victim.

The Apple Watch’s best use is real-time health monitoring, but this has a side effect. An Australian women, Caroline Nilsson, has been charged with the bashing murder of Myrna Nilsson. Caroline claims that Myrna was the victim of a road rage incident where a group of teens followed Myrna home and killed her. However, one key piece of evidence against this claim is that Myrna was wearing an Apple Watch, which recorded her heart rate data.

Apparently the Apple Watch recorded data consistent with an ambush-style attack where Myrna’s heart rate jumped dramatically as if under attack, then suddenly slowed as if she lost consciousness before stopping altogether. By using this heart rate data and the time that it occurred on the Apple Watch, prosecutors believe this contradicts Caroline’s story. Since the Apple Watch continually monitors health data like heart rate, it could possibly be used as evidence to define the time of death of the victim.

As more people wear devices like the Apple Watch, expect to see criminal cases supported or contradicted by the data stored on a victim’s Apple Watch. After all, the Apple Watch simply records data so it’s a silent witness to any type of murder. The Apple Watch is best for real-time health monitoring but in criminal cases, it can be handy to provide evidence on murder victims at the same time.

The Steady Evolution of the Apple Watch as a Real-Time Health Monitor

Posted on March 22, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Bloomberg reports that Apple’s next Apple Watch could detect heart abnormalities.

The best way to prevent health problems is to detect them early. The problem is most people won’t bother looking for health problems until they’ve gone too far. That’s why wearable computers like the Apple Watch can be useful because they can detect problems long before major symptoms appear. That way users can get help long before the problem spirals out of control.

According to the latest rumor, the next version of the Apple Watch might include new sensors to detect heart abnormalities. Right now, the Apple Watch can detect many problems but improved and additional sensors will be able to make real-time health monitoring even more accurate.

Eventually, it’s likely the Apple Watch will split into two markets. First, there will be the general market to detect common health problems. Second, there will be the specialized market dedicated to monitoring specific health issues such as diabetes. This could work by having smart bands attached to the Apple Watch. That way only people who need this feature could buy and use it separately from the Apple Watch.

Such smart bands could be dedicated to specific health issues, allowing the Apple Watch to remain general enough for most people with smart bands dedicated to niche markets that need dedicated sensors. In this way, the Apple Watch can meet the needs of general users and people suffering from specific health issues.

The Apple Watch is leading the wearable computer category and will likely continue to dominate. As the benefits of real-time health monitoring become more apparent, it’s likely that the Apple Watch will one day become more important than a smartphone. Toss in the Apple Watch’s cellular network connectivity and for some people, an Apple Watch might be all they’ll ever need.

The Apple Watch Emergency SOS

Posted on March 19, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The Apple Watch offers an emergency SOS feature, but you can customize or turn it off completely.

In the old days if someone fell, they had to crawl to a phone to call for help. Nowadays, most people have a smartphone but if they put that smartphone in the kitchen and they fall in the bedroom, that smartphone isn’t going to help them call for assistance. That’s what makes the Apple Watch unique. As a wearable computer, you just have to remember to put it on each day and throughout the day, you’ll be able to call for help using the emergency SOS feature.

If you have an Apple Watch, learn how to use this emergency SOS feature. After all, having this feature own’t do you any good if you don’t know how to use it. Once you learn how to use it, you may want to customize it to call specific people in an emergency.

However, triggering this emergency SOS feature can be too easy, which means you may trigger it by mistake. That’s why Apple gives you the option to turn off this feature altogether (generally not a wise move). So if you find yourself triggering the emergency SOS feature too often by mistake, first consider customizing who it contacts. Second, consider turning it off altogether, but remember that it’s far better to learn how not to trigger it by mistake than to need it one day and find it’s turned off.

The real key to the Apple Watch is real-time health monitoring and the emergency SOS feature is just another way to call for help when you need it. Most people will likely never need it but for those who do need it, this simple feature could literally save your life.

To learn how to customize the Apple Watch emergency SOS feature, click here.