Apple and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson have teamed for a healthcare project to determine whether Apple Watch can diagnose stroke risk. The study will be focused to determine whether AFib (atrial fibrillation) detection, when combined with a new app, could accelerate diagnosis.
The study with Johnson & Johnson will be limited to people who are at least 65 years old and who wear the Apple Watch Series 4, which has a couple of different tools used to detect AFib.
“The goal is to identify early on AFib and prevent stroke by combining the physical know-how from Apple and what we have from the medical and scientific know-how,” said Paul Stoffels, Johnson & Johnson’s Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.
“It is fair to say that the Watch has a very very good detection rate,” though he also says there are false positives. If an AFib reading shows up, patients will be directed to seek a formal diagnosis from their medical provider,” added Paul Burton, Johnson & Johnson’s Vice President of Medical Affairs for Internal Medicine.
Recently Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a statement to the public that Apple “greatest contribution” to humanity being will be in area of healthcare -- a space where the company has been making deeper inroads.
Apple Watch Series 4 is the latest iteration of the Apple Watch in the personal health space that brings advanced activity and communications features, along with a new accelerometer and gyroscope, which are able to detect hard falls, and an electrical heart rate sensor that can take an electrocardiogram (ECG) using the new ECG app
Earlier Apple has partnered with Stanford University School of Medicine on an Apple Heart Study, which is ongoing but now closed to new participants.
