Apple Inc. is pushing deeper into health tracking in Canada, adding new features to its smartwatch that alert users if they appear to have a potentially dangerous heart problem and that allow them to take a snapshot of their heartbeat to share with a doctor.
One is an irregular heartbeat notification, which uses a pulse sensor built into all Apple Watches to alert users if they have symptoms of atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous heart-rhythm disorder that often has few symptoms. It affects an estimated 200,000 Canadians and can lead to stroke. “These devices are with you all the time – we often say that they’re with you more often than a loved one,” Apple’s vice-president of health, Sumbul Desai said in an interview last week at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. “So how do we not take this responsibility and actually help someone with their health?”
The target market for an Apple Watch – young, health-conscious, affluent – is at particularly low risk for atrial fibrillation, which is more common among older people, said Gregory Marcus, associate chief of cardiology research at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr.