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Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

reuters.com

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Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#161

Post by saagarjha »

briandear wrote: post #18
robertlf wrote: post #14

I stopped reading at "funded by Apple Inc."

Do you think Apple and Stanford have a reason to falsify their results? Is it a sane, credible reason, based on actual history of those organizations falsifying medical research? Or, is it just an opposition related to malfunctioning tin-foil headgear? Is Stanford not a credible enough institution?

> Do you think Apple and Stanford have a reason to falsify their results?

Of course they do. It's just that if they did, there would likely be huge consequences for them, which makes one hope that they didn't do so in this case.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#162

Post by idDriven »

danieltillett wrote: post #138
idDriven wrote: post #123

Public Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. AFIB will be irregularly irregular. As as comparing cancer to AFIB it's definitely not accurate to compare the two directly. A very common cause of AFIB in people younger than 60 for example is 'holiday heart' short-term AFIB related to binge drinking, it is generally self-resolving and transitory, and generally does not require treatment e…

Actually most cancers do self-resolve in that your immune system kills them before they get large. This is one of the reasons being on immune suppression drugs leads to a significantly higher risk of developing cancer that gets large enough to be detected.

Yeah I should change the wording above to established cancer, thanks.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#163

Post by ip26 »

redsavagefiero wrote: post #153

A lot of people are overlooking the ultimate consumers of this data or being the usual SV shills. This data and all PHI/PII can be resold to insurance packaged in slightly different ways. Have fun with your 20th century issues in the 21st.

It's always seemed to me like accurate risk profiling is a positive thing. We don't mind that smokers pay higher rates, for example. After all their projected medical costs are more than double. Otherwise, nonsmokers would be forced to subsidize the choices of smokers.

Things like congenital issues should be protected (not a choice), but if someone leads an unhealthy lifestyle and actuaries can work out a good expected cost, why not? Is that so different from a risky driver?

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#164

Post by idDriven »

saagarjha wrote: post #156
idDriven wrote: post #123

Public Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. AFIB will be irregularly irregular. As as comparing cancer to AFIB it's definitely not accurate to compare the two directly. A very common cause of AFIB in people younger than 60 for example is 'holiday heart' short-term AFIB related to binge drinking, it is generally self-resolving and transitory, and generally does not require treatment e…

> Public Service Announcement: You can just check your pulse manually for free. Not continuously throughout the day, you can't.

60 Beats Per Minute feels a lot different than 100 BPM, which feels different than 140+ BPM. Once you get a feeling for how different BPM's feel to you if you have an abnormal elevation, like rapid heart rate at rest that would be an indication to manually check your pulse.

I'm just trying to say if you want to buy one that's cool but the premise that's it some kind of must-have life-saving accessory is questionable to me for the majority of people.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#165

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

deburo wrote: post #157
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't fathom how anyone would pay this. For less than three grand, you could fly to Europe for a weekend, stay in a five star hotel, and have all the tests done while you're there.

That can't be true, if you're not a citizen of a certain country, you don't get subsidies for its services.

It is true, because people do it all the time.

Medical tourism is a thing that people do. All the time.

You can pay top private clinics for medical services, and it can cost far less than the equivalent would cost in the US, even after insurance.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#166

Post by roganartu »

brandonb wrote: post #137
mehrdadn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a heartbeat-measuring watch with the battery life of a dumb watch. My watch goes like 5 years (I've lost count honestly) on its original battery. I'd love to have something watching out for my health but I just can't see myself moving to a smartwatch that needs recharging every 18 hours when I don't even need the smartness crap...

You might like the Withings Steel HR, which has a traditional mechanical watchface, a heart rate sensor, and about 25 days of battery life: https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr/36rgw/shop?screen=de... Some Garmin and Fitbit models have good battery life — often about a week.

I have worn both the original Fitbit Charge HR and the more recent Charge 2 daily for the past few years.

Aneceotally, because the watch isn't really water resistant (not least because the bands bubble if they get wet often), I have had it run out twice in that time and both times I was on holiday somewhere with no power. Because you are unlikely to actually wear it in the shower, just leave the charger permanently in your bathroom and get in the habit of taking it off and putting it on the charger when you shower. Even if you forget for one or two days it will almost always be sufficiently charged.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#167

Post by mbreese »

PakG1 wrote: post #148
mbreese wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly -- for those 45% with the false positive, you will be doing emotional harm to many of them, even without an invasive followup test. And then, if you knew that 45% of people got a false positive, how likely is the 5% (the true positives who really need it) going to believe their initial result and even get the followup?

EULA and UI should emphasize that this is not a sure thing, please see a doctor to be sure. Why would anyone get mad at that? My grandpa noticed my dad losing a ton of weight. He told my dad there might be something wrong with him, go check it out. Turns out it was cancer, saved my dad's life. Should my dad be upset at my grandpa for causing emotional stress if it was nothing?

Of course your dad shouldn’t be upset - your grand father did exactly what he should have done. When you notice a symptom like that, you get it checked out. (I’m happy for you and your dad, btw). The problem is when you have people getting checked out without any underlying symptoms.

When you have a ton of people getting their hearts checked because their watch told them to (and only for that reason), you’re going to get a lot of false positives. There are many reasons better explained in these comments for why that’s not a good thing.

One major reason is the extra stress on the medical system that can’t handle it. There has been much talk about medical genetics clinics having issues dealing with people calling in about 24 and me (etc) test results. It’s a major load for these clinics.

Now, an easy test like this — in the presence of other symptoms — is a great thing to have. I just worry about all the people getting needlessly checked out. But for those who already have a concern or family history, this type of test can be great.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#168

Post by Eric_WVGG »

nhooyr wrote: post #143
mehrdadn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a heartbeat-measuring watch with the battery life of a dumb watch. My watch goes like 5 years (I've lost count honestly) on its original battery. I'd love to have something watching out for my health but I just can't see myself moving to a smartwatch that needs recharging every 18 hours when I don't even need the smartness crap...

get a wireless charger and put it on your nightstand, problem solved.

In my experience you can wear it 23.5 hours a day as long as you charge during your morning shower and checking your email.

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#169

Post by Eric_WVGG »

fargo wrote: post #38
aboutruby wrote: post #22

I saw a few posts on Reddit about how the Apple Watch basically saved people's life: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/a40qm5/heading_... https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/9zrdq5/how_an_a... I'm sure there is a lot more. (Also all the people losing weight)

Sorry for the stupid question, what do you mean by people losing weight?

Here's a good one from a well-known tech journalist, from the very first Watch. http://www.loopinsight.com/2015/06/16/apple-watch-my-most-pe...

Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

#170

Post by sdrothrock »

brandonb wrote: post #82

I work at a related company (Cardiogram), and there's a surprising amount of signal locked in the humble heart rate sensor -- we've run multiple studies with UCSF showing accurate detection of sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and even diabetes using off-the-shelf heart rate sensors and a deep neural network, DeepHeart: https://blog.cardiogr.am/screening-with-wearables-what-do-th... If you're an engineer or payer rel…

The link isn't working for me (in Japan, if that helps) after the renewal, still.

I couldn't find a copy of the page in Google's cache or in the wayback archives.

I'm curious since I don't know anything about Cardiogram at all; is DeepHeart a part of Cardiogram? That is, are all of those detection capabilities part of your app if I have an Apple Watch?

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