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The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

techcrunch.com

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Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#12
post #2

Does anyone know how we can use this today?

Good question—this clinical validation study is a first, necessary step to prove that this technology is accurate enough to be used in a real-world setting, but the research study alone is a milestone rather than the end goal.

We're now working on implementing care pathways within the Cardiogram app. If all goes well, you should hear something from us in the next few months.

(In general, a digital health startup requires more patience than most other types of startups: you need to run rigorous, IRB-approved clinical studies to prove the technology really works; work with health systems and insurers rigorously show health economics; and comply with applicable regulations like HIPAA and FDA. There are just a lot of details to think through.)

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#13
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see a reference in the TechCrunch article -- is there a technical paper out? Edit: A presentation is linked, as "study": Link to presentation: http://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/4412/presentation/4522... A followup: Does the neural network provide some extra insight into what part of the waveform/time-series of pulses is able to provide predictive information?

Correct -- the abstract will be included in a special issue of Circulation: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/136/Suppl_1/A21042 The study was presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions earlier today. We included some details beyond what appears in the TechCrunch article in a blog post here: https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-for-hypertension-and-slee... I'd expect a more mature version of th…

Couldn't find the measurement process.

What is the common root cause of error? Inaccuracies in measurement or the model classifying data incorrectly?

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have plans to commercialize this?

> Do you have plans to commercialize this? Cardiogram is a venture-backed company.

That's correct. More from our investors:

  https://a16z.com/2016/10/20/cardiogram/

  https://homebrewvc.tumblr.com/post/152080260668/your-heart-beats-102000-times-a-day-cardiogram

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#15
post #2

Does anyone know how we can use this today?

Good question—this clinical validation study is a first, necessary step to prove that this technology is accurate enough to be used in a real-world setting, but the research study alone is a milestone rather than the end goal. We're now working on implementing care pathways within the Cardiogram app. If all goes well, you should hear something from us in the next few months. (In general, a digital health startup requ…

Okay. Any way for me to get updates on when it's available for use?

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#16

Danger, danger: heavily regulated waters ahead! Remember these words well: "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

  “And then you’d guide them through the appropriate final diagnosis, which would be through a blood pressure cuff and then treatment.”
so the intention is that this would generate a warning to go to your doctor?

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#17
post #3

I'm one of the co-founders of Cardiogram and involved in this study -- happy to answer questions if folks have them! (EDIT: heading to bed, but will answer questions in the morning!)

What are the false positive and false negative rates for sleep apnea detection? Would it be able to detect sub-clinical symptoms? Second the other comment on technical paper. Is it available?

The accuracies quoted here are c-statistics, or area under the ROC curve. An example operating point for sleep apnea is 97% specificity with a sensitivity of 52% (compared to a 20% diagnosis rate in today's healthcare system). If a specificity of 82% is acceptable, then we can detect about 75% of sleep apnea.

No technical paper yet (this was a cardiology conference), but we have some follow-up work in submission to an academic artificial intelligence conference, so hopefully we'll have a technical paper with more details out soon.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#19
post #18

97% accuracy seems high, but with an approximate sales number of 10 million Apple watches, it will give 300 thousand users an incorrect diagnosis.

Which is not so bad. They can follow up and figure it out.

Some people will go for decades before getting a proper diagnostic - or even die before they get one.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#20
post #18

97% accuracy seems high, but with an approximate sales number of 10 million Apple watches, it will give 300 thousand users an incorrect diagnosis.

Give 1000 people apple watches with the app versus 1000 people other smart watches without the capability. At the end of the year, find out how well diagnosed the two groups are.
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