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United Healthcare Offering Free Apple Watch

Posted on November 15, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: United Healthcare is offering the series 3 Apple Watch for free.

Insurance companies are in business to make money so if they can minimize payments, they’ll make more money. That’s why health insurance companies like United Healthcare are looking at wearable devices such as the Apple Watch to help reduce costs. The idea is that United Healthcare will give you an Apple Watch series 3 absolutely free. The only catch is that you must meet regular physical activity goals.

The program’s walking goals are centered around frequency (walking 500 steps within seven minutes six times per day, at least an hour apart), intensity (3,000 steps within 30 minutes) and tenacity (10,000 total steps each day). If participants meet these daily goals, they can own the watch in six months.

United Healthcare is betting that people excited to get a free Apple Watch will be more motivated to stay active and healthy. The more healthy people United Healthcare has, the less likely they’ll fall sick and need payment from the insurance company. So companies like United Healthcare aren’t offering the Apple Watch solely out of the goodness of their heart but because it’s a pragmatic business decision.

Patients benefit because they stay healthy and get a free Apple Watch. The insurance company benefits because they pay less out and keep more of the premiums for themselves, so everybody wins. Expect more health insurance companies to start offering similar programs, giving away free wearable devices in return for meeting specific exercise and activity goals. If you can get a free Apple Watch just by improving your health, why wouldn’t you sign up with United Healthcare instead of another company that does not offer a similar program?

The main purpose of wearable computers like the Apple Watch is real-time health monitoring so anything that can improve your health will simply benefit everyone. If you want to stay healthy, using the Apple Watch (whether for free or not) will simply improve the quality of your life, and that’s something no amount of money can replace.

Apple Intern Turns to Medicine

Posted on October 26, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, Software Leave a comment

What it is: An Apple intern used his Apple Watch to monitor the pulse of an unconscious woman.

While on a flight from Arizona to Washington D.C., Brian Shear, an intern at Apple, helped a physician monitor an unconscious woman on the plane. Using his Apple Watch, Brian Shear captured the woman’s pulse information and then gave that information to doctors so they could use that information to help her. That’s when Brian Shear decided instead of working for a company making lifesaving equipment, he wanted to become a doctor and use technology to help others.

Brain Shear is now studying medicine at Central Michigan University and came up with another idea from his time at Apple. The hospital created a 50-page manual for brain tumor patients. Brain decided to turn this 50-page manual and convert it into an ebook using the free iBooks Author program. By making the manual interactive, Brian believes that patients will use and read the information. Even better, he can easily send this manual to others and duplicate it freely, completely eliminating printing costs with the paper manual.

By using the Apple Watch and iBooks Author, Brian Shear has shown how doctors in the future can use technology to save lives and provide information to patients. To read more about Brian Shear, click here.

Lower Life Insurance Premiums with the Apple Watch

Posted on September 20, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: John Hancock is offering lower life insurance premiums for people who use a wearable computer to track their health.

Insurance companies are in the business of making money and to do that, they need more people to pay in than they pay out. To avoid paying out claims in life insurance, John Hancock is turning to an “interactive life insurance” policy. That means if people exercise and track their health using a wearable computer like an Apple Watch, their life insurance premiums will be lower.

The goal is to keep people healthy as long as possible so John Hancock won’t have to pay out life insurance benefits. Yet that shows how the Apple Watch and other wearable computers are proving valuable as real-time health monitors. To encourage people to use a wearable computer, John Hancock offers it as at a discount. The company’s goal is purely monetary, but the benefits means Apple Watch and other wearable computer users can stay healthy and enjoy life longer as a result.

For anyone still confused about the purpose of the Apple Watch, think real-time health monitoring. If you’re concerned about staying healthy and alive, then you need an Apple Watch. For those critics who don’t care about staying healthy or alive, feel free to ignore the benefits of wearable computers and take yourself out of the gene pool prematurely.

The wearable computer market is the next hot market after the mobile market of smartphones and tablets. At Apple’s last event on September 12, the company introduced new iPhones but the Apple Watch stole the show. Eventually, more wearable computers such as smart glasses will steal the show too, and the iPhone will just become another commodity like the Macintosh.

The future shifted from traditional PCs to mobile computing, then to wearable computers. The Apple Watch is just the start of wearable computing with smart glasses promising to become the next big product. Hopefully if you use the Apple Watch, you can improve your chances of being alive long enough to see and use Apple’s next wearable computer in the next few years.

The Apple Watch as a Health Monitor

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: The latest Apple Watch offers electrocardiogram, which is new for a consumer product.

When the Apple Watch first appeared, people wondered why they would need one. After all, an iPhone worked just fine and the Apple Watch offered a much smaller screen. While the iPhone and iPad App Store had taken off in popularity, the App Store for the Apple Watch remains more or less stagnant. Most people don’t use an Apple Watch for anything but brief glances, so constant interactivity is fairly useless on an Apple Watch.

Yet the biggest strength of the Apple Watch is its ability to monitor health symptoms in real-time passively. Once you strap an Apple Watch on, it keeps recording your health data, which is why adding an electrocardiogram is a huge feature.

Users can put their finger on the digital crown as the Apple Watch passes a current across the chest to track electrical signals in the heart, directly, which is far more accurate than interpreting based on pulse. The process takes about 30 seconds and the user will receive a heart rhythm classification. Normal rhythms will be classified as “sinus” rhythm, and the Watch will also classify irregular rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation.

While this may not be as accurate as a dedicated machine, this feature in the Apple Watch can detect possible heart irregularities early. The early a problem is detected, the sooner the person can get medical attention, thereby saving lives. Previous versions of the Apple Watch have already saved numerous lives and now this latest feature can potentially save many more.

While young people have traditionally been the market for new technology, the Apple Watch is unique in that is targets older people. The newest Apple Watch can detect when a person falls and then contact emergency services automatically if the person doesn’t get up. This will likely cause many young people to buy one for their elderly parents. Now the real trick is getting these elderly people to wear the Apple Watch regularly.

The Apple Watch is mostly a self-contained unit, unlike the iPhone and iPad. The Apple Watch App Store will likely remain small compared to the iPhone and iPad App Store, but that’s because the products target two different uses. The iPhone and iPad is great for interaction on the go. The Apple Watch is far better for brief glances and constant health monitoring, which neither the iPhone or iPad can do easily.

As long as Apple continues pursuing health benefits with the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch has the potential to become a huge product that could dwarf the iPhone. Not everyone needs an iPhone, but everyone is concerned about their health, especially the elderly. Since the world is aging in many countries, the Apple Watch will continue growing as well. The future isn’t just mobile, but wearable computers, and the leader in wearables will be the Apple Watch.

Wearable Computers Used to Track Chronic Health Conditions

Posted on August 30, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical Leave a comment

What it is: Users track chronic health issues with wearable computers.

When Apple first released the Apple Watch, many people couldn’t see a need for one. Over time, Apple Watch users have found the best uses for their device and that involves real-time health tracking. Because a wearable computer can monitor a user’s health without the user’s constant interaction, the Apple Watch can easily monitor health symptoms and store this data for analysis.

Using data collected by the popular health app Cardiogram, researchers noticed that a vast majority of real-time health tracking isn’t just for improving health such as athletes might need, but for managing and tracking chronic health conditions. In other words, if you currently have a serious health condition, a wearable like the Apple Watch can help you monitor your condition so it doesn’t suddenly get worse.

For anyone still confused as to the purpose of the Apple Watch, they just need to protect their health. That’s a simple explanation for why someone might want an Apple Watch that anyone can understand. You might not need an Apple Watch to make phone calls (but it can be handy to have a phone strapped to your wrist, especially for the elderly who may fall down). You might not need an Apple Watch to play games, but you might want an Apple Watch to help you monitor your current health conditions so they don’t get worse.

Protecting your health and monitoring it in real-time is the main use for the Apple Watch. If you’re not interested in your health, then you probably don’t need anything else either from medicine and diagnosis machines to wearable computers like the Apple Watch. If you’re like most people who do care about your health, the Apple Watch can literally be a life saver.

Losing Weight with the Apple Watch

Posted on August 7, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, Medical, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: The Apple Watch can track your daily activities to help you lose weight.

Leif Johnson simply wants to lose weight. Like most people, losing weight can be easier if you have someone with you at all times to constantly remind you of your goals. However, unlike most people, Leif relies on the Apple Watch to help him lose weight.

The Apple Watch works for helping people lose weight for several reasons. First, as long as you attach it to your arm everyday, it can provide constant reminders of your daily activities such as calories burned, exercise, and whether you’re standing up at least once an hour. By tracking all this data passively while you go about your day, you can see periods of time when you might be inactive and when you have a chance to be more active.

The basic saying is that if you measure something, it’s more likely to get done. That’s why dieters count calories and weigh themselves because only by knowing where they’re at in relation to their goal can they make sure they continue working towards that goal. It’s not always fun or exciting to see days when you’re slacking off, but it is educational because it shows that you can’t do nothing and simply wish your excess weight away. You have to work at any goal, such as weight loss, everyday.

Besides providing constant reminders, the Apple Watch also can help you lose weight by providing regular notifications. Just displaying information passively may not be enough. Having the Apple Watch display your exercise or calories consumed goal at the end of the day can be a powerful motivator to get you to take consistent and regular action towards your goal.

The Apple Watch passively records your data and then actively reminds you when you’re falling short and when your’e reaching your goals. Through this combination, the Apple Watch can help you lose weight.

Naturally, the Apple Watch can do more but for many people, this aid to losing weight can be worth the price alone. Then anything else the Apple Watch does is simply a bonus.