Malcolm Owen
The Apple Watch has been credited with saving another life due to its heart beat monitoring functionality, with the wearable device detecting an unusual pulse rate and a suggestion to go to hospital, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of tachycardia.
Posting to Twitter, host of radio show Science Friday Ira Flatow revealed his brother was "saved by his Apple Watch," alerting him to a higher than normal heart beat. According to the personality, the heart beat was in excess of 200 beats per minute, prompting the sibling to take a trip to the hospital.
Doctors issued a diagnosis of tachycardia, a condition when the heart rate exceeds the normal resting rate, which for most adults would be a resting heart rate of over 100 beats per minute. While such rates could be normal, as in cases where the person regularly exercises, it can also be deemed abnormal for a variety of problems, including electrical issues within the heart itself.
My brother was saved by his Apple Watch. After he felt a rapid heart beat >200 bpm, his watch told him to "go to the hospital." He did and his tachycardia was diagnosed.
— Ira Flatow (@iraflatow) March 7, 2019
Flatow also posted a comment from the brother on the accuracy of the Apple Watch, noting "during the 15 hours I was at the hospital hooked up to the monitors, my monitors never disagreed with my Watch's reading. I checked many times."
The introduction of functions in watchOS 5.1.2, including enabling the electrocardiogram function in the Apple Watch Series 4 in the United States and the Irregular Rhythm Notification for all models, has been credited with saving numerous lives since the start of the year.
In January, a New Hampshire man credited the Apple Watch Series 4's ECG function for spotting atrial fibrillation. In February, a North Carolina native was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia following a similar Apple Watch notification, while another in Washington learned his atrial fibrillation had returned via the device.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
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AppleInsider Staff
24 Comments
The heart rate function does not require the lead 1 ECG function- the older watches can detect the pule with the LED on the back of the watch.
I am sure many more lifes saved by Apple watch but not reported as the case.
This is just the beginning of a revolution in personal health monitoring. I think Samsung is introducing a blood pressure monitoring function. Glucose monitoring will be next. Think of an Apple watch with all those health monitoring functions built-in along with the software to analyze and report findings to your doctor in real time.
"during the 15 hours I was at the hospital hooked up to the monitors, my monitors never disagreed with my Watch's reading. I checked many times." It’s not a game. It’s not a function that work only on paper. It’s work for real . It report problems about the heart. It give advice to breath deeply when sensors and processor think is time to do it. Apple Watch is innovation . Pure innovation. Thanks Apple.