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Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

seattletimes.com

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Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#241

Post by graeme »

DuskStar wrote: post #67
joshvm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The specs for the watch specifically rule out heart attack detection, by the way. > Apple Watch cannot detect heart attacks. If you ever experience chest pain, pressure, tightness, or what you think is a heart attack, call emergency services immediately.

"What we list for legal purposes" and "what the device actually does" might not be the same thing. I imagine saying "my device detects heart attacks" gets the FDA involved and makes everything ten times more expensive...

The watch did an emergency sos. AFAIK no heart related notification triggers that - only fall detection can.

Outside possibility is he felt bad, saw a heart rhythm notification, and manually triggered emergency sos by holding the power button. But a fall alert seems much more likely.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#242

Post by garmaine »

FreakyT wrote: post #196
bonniemuffin wrote: post #122

Tip: the fall detection feature seems to be turned off by default. I just turned mine on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

Also of note: Fall detection is exclusive to the series 4 or above, which seems questionable. (I would be very surprised if the series 3 and 4 have significantly different accelerometer hardware)

Series 4 is very different hardware. I'm not surprised.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#243

Post by graeme »

FreakyT wrote: post #196
bonniemuffin wrote: post #122

Tip: the fall detection feature seems to be turned off by default. I just turned mine on. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

Also of note: Fall detection is exclusive to the series 4 or above, which seems questionable. (I would be very surprised if the series 3 and 4 have significantly different accelerometer hardware)

They specifically said in the announcement that it was due to new tech.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#244

Post by defap »

swayvil wrote: post #238
BjoernKW wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It watches the heartbeat, probably arrhythmias specifically. You can't monitor blood pressure with just a watch. You need a blood pressure cuff for that.

Does it watch heartbeat via the gyroscope? If so then that's a darn sensitive gyroscope.

Via an optical sensor that can perform photoplethysmography.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#245

Post by dreamcompiler »

kirrent wrote: post #127
DuskStar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What we list for legal purposes" and "what the device actually does" might not be the same thing. I imagine saying "my device detects heart attacks" gets the FDA involved and makes everything ten times more expensive...

Well the watch isn't measuring troponin levels so it's hard to imagine how useful it could ever be at MI detection, especially given the limitations of a poor contact single lead ECG.

I could imagine the thing detecting Vfib but it would need to use some good AI signal processing to exclude artifacts. Elevated ST segments, probably not, even with good AI.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#246

Post by movedx »

brandonscott wrote: post #235
movedx wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and it not really being designed for overnight wear (as I understand it) really hold it back. I have a first generation Apple Watch. This is one of the things that annoyed me after buying it: you aint sleeping with it on if you want it to running the next morning. I'm hopeful that batteries will get better and better, and eventually we'll be able to sleep with the watch on and have it track sleeping patterns, etc.

fwiw i have a series 4 and i sleep in it every night. much better battery life than the first gen

Interesting.

I just keep reading the comments and sadly the ECG feature is not available in Australia and may never be as Apple have never applied for the licenses.

Not a huge deal breaker but an annoying one.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#248

Post by StavrosK »

JshWright wrote: post #191
DuskStar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What we list for legal purposes" and "what the device actually does" might not be the same thing. I imagine saying "my device detects heart attacks" gets the FDA involved and makes everything ten times more expensive...

The watch doesn't have enough data to detect a heart attack. It's not possible for the device to do it (with current, or even near-future technology it's not possible for any wrist worn device to detect a heart attack as it's happening).

Source: he's an EMT.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#249

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

JshWright wrote: post #192
kirrent wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the watch isn't measuring troponin levels so it's hard to imagine how useful it could ever be at MI detection, especially given the limitations of a poor contact single lead ECG.

Even if it could check a trop, that's a pretty late indicator. If you're having the big one, you're going to be dead before your troponin spikes.

Is that right? When I worked in medical instrumentation, I was always told that TnI was a leading marker.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#250

Post by shkkmo »

sdinsn wrote: post #142
frabbit wrote: post #136

Then his helmeted head hit the ground so hard it knocked him unconscious — hard enough for his Apple Watch to feel it. “A hit that hard could have killed me if I weren’t wearing it,” Burdett said. He had to replace the helmet. Sigh. Bicycle helmets prevent neither concussions nor death: by design, according to all epidemiological studies and according to the manufacturers of bicycle helmets. https://www.badscience.ne…

You are misrepresenting the research. The research is regarding the effect of public policy (making it illegal to bike without a helmet) on bicycle accidents. > With regard to the use of bicycle helmets, science broadly tries to answer two main questions... “what is the effect of a public health policy that requires or promotes helmets?” and... “what is the effect of wearing a helmet?” > The linked paper by Dennis an…

To me, it seems like you both failed to accurately represent the linked article.

The linked editorial does not limit itself to discussing the impact of public health policy. It does start with a link to an article that attempts to quantify the effects of a Canadian helmet law. However, it then discusses a number of other papers and the general methodological issues with trying to estimate effects of wearing a helmet.

However, the article certainly does not endorse the claim you are responding to: "Bicycle helmets prevent neither concussions nor death"

The conclusion reached by the editorial is that the safety effects of helmet use are complicated and contingent which makes the results of any study of the effects highly dependent on the methodology. (There could be a positive effect in NYC but a negative effect in the Netherlands or a positive effect for riders of street bikes, but a negative effect for cruisers)

> In any case, the current uncertainty about any benefit from helmet wearing or promotion is unlikely to be substantially reduced by further research.

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