Angela Lang / CNET
The Apple Watch may be able to predict how healthy or unhealthy you are and keep you in check as you age. WatchOS 7is expected to launch a new set of mobility metrics in the fall that will provide a snapshot of a person’s physical and cardiovascular fitness and can help doctors identify more serious health conditions.
Mobility or functionality as it is known in the medical world is one of the best indicators of general health and longevity. Mobility decreases with age, but can also be influenced by other factors such as illness or injury.
“Maintaining or improving functionality is one of the most important things we do as doctors,” says Dr. Nauman Mushtaq, an interventional cardiologist at Northwestern Medical Group.
There are many ways to improve mobility metrics. Some are as simple as increasing activity levels, while others can involve more complex medical procedures.
The Apple Watch will use motion sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, as well as advanced algorithms, to provide a range of data points associated with mobility. This includes VO2 max in the lower section (which measures maximum oxygen consumption), how fast you can go up and down stairs, and an estimate of how far you can go in six minutes, which doctors call a six-minute walk test.
Other data points such as stride length and double support time (which measures a person’s walk) are captured by the paired iPhone iOS 14. All of this information is then displayed in a new mobility area of the health app on the iPhone. And it’s not retroactive, so you’ll only see data that was collected after the updates were installed. The value is that it is able to collect information over time, and not just during a visit to the doctor’s office.
For both the six-minute walk test and the VO2 Max test, patients traditionally have to be examined by doctors in a clinic, hospital or laboratory. With VO2 max, the patient wears a mask that analyzes the oxygen content on a treadmill or bicycle. The Apple Watch does not require any additional effort to measure mobility.
A traditional VO2 Max test done in a laboratory.
Jean-Yves Ruszniewski / Getty Images
“Accelerometers and PPG sensors are unlikely to be used alone [that are in the Apple Watch] can capture all the nuances of medical testing and should not be considered a substitute, “said Dr. Geoff Tison, cardiologist and assistant professor of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco.” But if it is well validated and with the ability to passively monitor these metrics on a large number of people without complex equipment, it could be valuable, “he added.
These numbers in the health app may not mean much to the average user. However, if they are monitored by a doctor over time, they can provide real-time feedback on how your body is responding to treatment, whether it is a new exercise program. Medication or surgery. It can even warn users of serious underlying conditions. Mushtaq says sudden changes in mobility can be associated with anemia, lung disease, or asthma.
He believes that insurance companies or Medicare could ultimately use these types of metrics to assess whether certain procedures, such as B. joint replacement, based on the expected improvement in functionality or not.
But even after WatchOS 7 was introduced to users, it may take a while for these metrics to become widely accepted by the medical community instead of the existing tests. It took two years and a pandemic for the FDA to solve the problem ECG function on the Apple Watch for remote monitoring of patients.
The public version of WatchOS 7 is expected to be released in the fall along with iOS 14 for the iPhone and is only available for the Apple Watch Series 3 or higher. The update also includes a new one Sleep tracking function, Listening to health notifications and better fitness tools you can Read about it here.