If there are any MDs around, I'd be curious to know if there's some kind of data-driven baseline about there being a regular heart beat to begin with, or if there being one is an underlying assumption that's taken for granted. (Either way, kudos to Apple for contributing to health science.)
Med Student here so I know just about nothing... We’ve monitored hearts for a long time. It is common for a heart to skip a beat or maybe double a beat occasionally (a stethoscope on your own heart for 30 mins would demonstrate that). I don’t think Atrial Fibrillation is ever a normal sign.
Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
191–200 of 242 posts
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from the US, but I live in a country with "national health care" and... look it sucks. You know what I miss? 1990s era health care for tech workers in the US. When you went in and everything was covered for a $20 co-pay. You want a specific medication, or a non-generic medication in Australia? Too bad. It's not that it costs more, you just can't get it. Things like Wellbutrin are as illegal as crack. And if you d…
That is most certainly not the experience I've had with nationalized health care in Europe. Sounds like an implementation problem more than anything.
And there won't be any transparency because the people administering the system have all the power and don't like being embarrassed. Meanwhile then public schools and public broadcasts will bang the drum for that system on a daily basis making sure most citizens feel dependent on it, no matter how bad it really is.
And just to make it real, I personally know someone who was told to wait half a year for an appointment. They personally knew a doctor who told them "you can't wait that long, I am going to pull some strings". Turns out it was cancer. This is in Germany, btw, and it's not an isolated case.
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#193I 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)
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...
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#194https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0sv3Kuurhw Super underrated channel (British humor, anyone)--shows how the Apple Watch's ECG feature can be actually bad for overall health. edit: though the amount of positive outcomes (the reddit thread) makes me reassess this...
> It should be noted though that this study does not say that an Apple Watch will overall provide medical benefits. It also doesn't follow automatically from the fact that it detects things with a certain reliability. The interactions of early detection and medical benefits and downsides are complicated and it will require a lot more science to figure out whether a device like an Apple Watch can provide benefit.
The only thing I would add is the last thing I mentioned in this comment, namely that you might consider buying one for a higher risk person like your grandpa rather than yourself.
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Watched the whole thing, basically the argument is that overdiagnosis leads to people worrying (increasing stress) when the doctor says "based on this I can't give you drugs since the drugs aren't completely harmless", or the doc might recommend follow up tests that give ambiguous results and escalate (in the example) to an operation to test a certain thing where the patient has a 1 in 3k chance of dying from the procedure itself. Additionally, experiments where they strap a bunch of such devices to healthy patients (basically what apple's watch does as well, especially the young and modern people will buy it) and while it lead to more diagnoses, it didn't decrease the chance of stroke or heart attacks in that group.
I don't think any of this is a significant reason not to buy it. I'm not going to buy one for various reasons, but this isn't one of them. It is good to be aware of the arguments, though: it might lead to someone buying one for their grandma rather than healthy and young(ish) self.
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple added gamification elements to the Apple Watch. “Closing the rings” which means completing 100% of the move, stand and exercise targets adds a competitive element to fitness which has worked well for many users.
I haven't yet found the rings and other features to be nearly as motivating as when all of my friends had Fitbits and we were connected through their service. That was one thing that kept me from switching faster, I didn't want to give up the Fitbit social network.
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#196I 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)
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...
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be a huge invasion of privacy for an insurance company to do this - and not only privacy, but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance). SO premiums go up regardless, and only the insurance company win in this scenario. Right now, the right choice is to combat this problem before…
> but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance). I agree with your premise about the point of insurance. How is the discussed idea any different than insurance companies giving different rates to older people and denying coverage for pre existing conditions, in terms of discrimination agai…
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is precisely the beauty of something like an Apple Watch. Everybody can be screened without wasting resources and the device can alert if it is really something that needs a specialist. Of course, we are on the early stages of something like that and the devices are not really capable of diagnosing on their own, thus you end up with a spike in consultations. But given some time it should be way more accurate and…
It's entirely possible that a test which was net positive when applied "with probable cause", can even become a net negative if applied without. Because testing the whole population will produce many more false positives. I doubt the tests they are running here will actually go that far. But pervasive testing does need different trade-offs to targeted testing. At least we may have more complete data from which to und…
Re: Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study
#199I don’t understand, even Reuters is giving random numbers: A third of those whose watches detected an irregular pulse were confirmed to have atrial fibrillation using the ECG technology, researchers said. Some 84 percent of the irregular pulse notifications were later confirmed to have been AF episodes, data showed. What is it then, 1/3 or 4/5?