As I write this, I’m uncertain what the new sensors are (the article does not yet say, and I cannot current watch the presentation), but I’m excited to learn. Probably temperature and …what else?
As a physician, I have been very impressed with the Apple Watch. I love the idea of Apple adding to the sensor platform to monitor health parameters.
Physicians call vital signs “vital” for a reason. Simple parameters such as temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen levels convey critical information.
Apple is gradually adding the ability to nearly continuously monitor vital signs. They also monitor additional information, such as heart rhythm. What makes Apple stand out is the high quality of the measurements and Apple’s development of extremely clever algorithms to extrapolate additional information from the data they measure, far more than the sum of the parts. When they are able to add blood pressure monitoring, glucose monitoring, etc., we will see something pretty amazing as the result. I can imagine Siri being able to tell you that you are “diagnose” dehydration, respiratory/lung problems, severe infection (sepsis), sleep apnea, seizures, orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure dropping when you stand up), early Parkinson‘a disease, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Each sensor they add could increase the potential issues that the watch/iPhone could detect in an exponential fashion.
TL;DR - Doctors love this crap!
