Empowering your patients to live a healthier day.
AppleWatch has powerful apps that make it the ultimate device for a healthy life. And it can support you and your patients across multiple aspects of health, including heart health, mobility, activity, medications and more.
Heart rate notifications.
AppleWatch checks for unusually high or low heart rates in the background, which could be signs of a serious underlying condition. This could help you and your patients identify situations that may warrant further evaluation.
If a patient’s heart rate is above 120 bpm or below 40 bpm while they appear to have been inactive for 10 minutes, the user will receive a notification. Patients can adjust the threshold bpm or turn these notifications on or off. All heart rate notifications — along with date, time and heart rate — can be viewed in the Health app on iPhone.
Learn more about heart rate notifications
Irregular rhythm notifications.
The irregular rhythm notification occasionally checks for signs of irregular rhythms that may be suggestive of atrial fibrillation (AF).This feature won’t detect all instances of AF, but may catch something that can provide your patients with an early indication that further evaluation may be warranted.
Irregular rhythm notifications use the optical heart sensor to detect the pulse wave at the wrist and look for variability in beat‑to‑beat intervals when the user is at rest. If the algorithm repeatedly detects an irregular rhythm suggestive of AF, your patient will receive a notification and the date, time and beat‑to‑beat heart rate will be recorded in the Healthapp.
The irregular rhythm notification feature is CE marked and cleared for users 22 years and older with no prior history of atrial fibrillation.
Learn more about irregular rhythm notifications
ECGapp.
With the ECG app, patients who experience symptoms such as rapid or skipped heartbeat, or receive the irregular rhythm notification, can capture an ECG and record their symptoms. This real-world data can enable you to make more informed and timely decisions regarding further evaluation and care.
The ECG app uses the electrical heart sensor built into the DigitalCrown and the back crystal to record a single-lead ECG similar to a Lead I ECG. The ECG app then provides a result of sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, atrial fibrillation with high heart rate, inconclusive or poor recording, and prompts the user to enter any symptoms such as rapid or pounding heartbeat, dizziness or fatigue. An inconclusive result may occur if there is presence of arrhythmias other than AF, presence of an ICD or pacemaker, or poor electrical signal, which can result from right axis deviation. The recorded waveform, results, date, time and any symptoms are recorded and can be exported from the Health app as a PDF to share with a clinician. If the patient notes symptoms that indicate a serious condition, they are prompted to immediately call the emergency services.
In a clinical study using a 12-lead ECG as a reference device, the ECG app demonstrated 99.6% specificity in classifying sinus rhythm and 98.3% sensitivity in classifying AF for the classifiable results.
The ECG app is CE marked and cleared for users aged 22 years or older.
Learn more about the ECGapp
How the ECG app works.
- Launch the ECG app on AppleWatch Series4 or later.
- Rest arms on a table or in lap, and hold index finger on the DigitalCrown for about 30 seconds.
- Review rhythm classification and record symptoms.
- View and export ECG waveform, rhythm classification, date/time of recording, and any reported symptoms in the Health app on iPhone.
- Allow clinicians to view a snapshot of findings as aPDF.
AF History.
AF History is a first-of-its-kind feature that provides patients who are diagnosed with atrial fibrillation with lifestyle insights and long-term tracking of how frequently they show signs of AF. Your patients will receive notifications with an estimate of the time they spent in AF each week while wearing their AppleWatch. Patients can also view a detailed history in the Healthapp.
Your patients can also track lifestyle factors that may contribute to their condition, including weight, exercise, sleep, alcohol consumption and mindful minutes. These factors are charted alongside their AF burden to help them better understand the relationship between their lifestyle andAF.
AF History is CE marked and cleared for users aged 22 years and older with no prior history of atrial fibrillation. Once AF History is turned on, irregular rhythm notifications will be automatically turnedoff.
Validation of AF detection and monitoring features.
Each feature on AppleWatch is subject to rigorous scientific validation to help your patients receive trustworthy and reliable insights. In 2017 and 2018, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine worked with Apple on the Apple Heart Study and over 400,000 AppleWatch users to validate the ability of wearable technology to aid in the early detection of atrial fibrillation and to support the introduction of the irregular rhythm notification feature. Since then Apple has conducted several prospective multi-centre clinical trials to support additional products, including the ECG app and enhancements to the irregular rhythm notification feature.
See the results of the Apple Heart Study
Learn more about arrhythmia detection validation (PDF)
- Consectetur
- Consectetur
- Consectetur
This can be an addition to our growing armamentarium to identify AF, which can be intermittent and asymptomatic.
Products that seek to provide deeper health insights, like the AppleWatch, have the potential to be significant in new clinical care models and shared decision making between people and their healthcare providers.
Apple is democratising healthcare, providing on‑demand access to accurate sensors and software that can help consumers develop real healthcare literacy and inform how daily choices impact their health.
Compare AppleWatch Models
- HeartRate and Irregular Rhythm Notifications
- AF History
- ECG App
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications
- BloodOxygen Level
- FallDetection
- Sensors
- Optical heart sensor
- Optical heart sensor
- Electrical heart sensor
- Optical heart sensor and location
- Optical heart sensor
- Accelerometer and gyroscope
- AppleWatch Series3
- High and Low HeartRate Notifications Optical heart sensor
- Irregular Rhythm Notification Optical heart sensor
- ECG App Electrical heart sensor
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications Optical heart sensor and location
- BloodOxygen Level Optical heart sensor
- FallDetection Accelerometer and gyroscope
- AppleWatchSE
- High and Low HeartRate Notifications Optical heart sensor
- Irregular Rhythm Notification Optical heart sensor
- ECG App Electrical heart sensor
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications Optical heart sensor and location
- BloodOxygen Level Optical heart sensor
- FallDetection Accelerometer and gyroscope
- AppleWatch Series4 and5
- High and Low HeartRate Notifications Optical heart sensor
- Irregular Rhythm Notification Optical heart sensor
- ECG App Electrical heart sensor
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications Optical heart sensor and location
- BloodOxygen Level Optical heart sensor
- FallDetection Accelerometer and gyroscope
- AppleWatch Series6 or later
- High and Low HeartRate Notifications Optical heart sensor
- Irregular Rhythm Notification Optical heart sensor
- ECG App Electrical heart sensor
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications Optical heart sensor and location
- BloodOxygen Level Optical heart sensor
- FallDetection Accelerometer and gyroscope
- AppleWatch Ultra
- High and Low HeartRate Notifications Optical heart sensor
- Irregular Rhythm Notification Optical heart sensor
- ECG App Electrical heart sensor
- Low Cardio Fitness Notifications Optical heart sensor and location
- BloodOxygen Level Optical heart sensor
- FallDetection Accelerometer and gyroscope
Mobility and Cardio Fitness.
Mobility and cardiovascular fitness can be strong indicators of overall physical health and a predictor of long-term well-being. AppleWatch and iPhone can provide estimates of mobility metrics to give you and your patients a better understanding of how they impact mobility today and provide tools to monitor these factors over time. Mobility metrics include Cardio Fitness (VO2 max), Six-Minute Walk Distance and other metrics used to measure walking quality (Walking Speed, Step Length, Double Support Time and Walking Asymmetry). These metrics may be utilised for research and app development with the user’s permission.
Find out more about how these metrics were developed and validated:
Using AppleWatch to estimate Cardio Fitness with VO2 max(PDF)
Using AppleWatch to estimate Six-Minute Walk Distance(PDF)
Measuring Walking Quality Through iPhone Mobility Metrics(PDF)
Fall Detection.
When a hard fall is detected with AppleWatch Series4 or later, an alert appears and allows the user to easily call the emergency services or dismiss the alert. If the user is unresponsive for about a minute, an emergency call will be placed automatically and a message will be sent to the user’s emergency contacts. All falls detected are recorded in the Health app. This feature is automatically enabled for users aged 55 years and over, and can be turned on for anyone in the AppleWatch app on iPhone.
Learn more about FallDetection
MedicalID.
MedicalID allows first responders and emergency clinicians to access critical medical information from a patient’s iPhone Lock screen or AppleWatch without requiring a passcode, and without compromising patient privacy. Patients can list important information such as allergies, medication, conditions, organ donor preferences and emergency contacts by setting up MedicalID in the Health app on iPhone.
Learn more about accessing MedicalID on AppleWatch
Medications.
The Medications experience on iPhone, iPad and AppleWatch helps your patients track and manage the medications they take. Your patients can receive reminders to log scheduled medications, see medication adherence over time and review their active medications list.
Cycle Tracking.
Cycle Tracking on iPhone, iPad and AppleWatch lets your patients track their menstrual cycle, log symptoms, and receive notifications for upcoming periods and fertile windows. They can also receive notifications when their logged cycle shows signs of a possible cycle deviation, such as irregular or infrequent periods, which can be associated with an underlying medical condition.
Learn more about the research that informed cycle deviation notifications
Facilitate richer conversations.
The Health app on iPhone and iPad makes it easier than ever for your patients to visualise and securely store their health records from multiple institutions alongside their patient-generated data, creating a more holistic view of their health. Patients can now share their Healthapp data which you can view within your EHRworkflow.
Learn more about health records on iPhone
Designed with security and privacy in mind.
When a user’s iPhone or iPad is locked with a passcode, TouchID or FaceID, their health data in the Health app is encrypted on‑device. If a user chooses to sync their health data with iCloud, it is encrypted while in transit and at rest.
The future of healthcare is in your hands.
Learn more about Apple in Healthcare
And the future of health is on your wrist.
Learn more about AppleWatch
