Stanford releases full results of its Apple Watch study

At the beginning of 2019, we learned that the establishment led by Canadian neuroscience researcher Marc Tessier-Lavigne formalized a partnership with Apple whose objective was to achievea thorough investigationon theatrial fibrillation. All while calling on the Watch,which still sells by the millions.

Today, the final report which summarizes all the data collected during the study has just been published in the highly renowned American scientific publicationThe New England Journal of Medicine. We learn in particular that more than twenty researchers from all over the world participated in its creation, on behalf of Tim Cook's company.who financed the operation.

The numbers

The objective of this very large-scale work was to confirm that a smartwatch can indeed detect irregular heartbeats whose pattern indicates an increased risk of atrial fibrillation. For Apple, this would indeed be asize argumentin favor of its product, adding to the multiple stories wherethis one saved the lives of some users.

And indeed, it is confirmed: out of 419,297 patients analyzed for almost 4 months each, more than 2,000 showed signs of arrhythmia. And the majority (84%)actually presented a proven case of supraventricular rhythm disturbances. Last notable observation: people aged over 65 are more prone to it, with 3% of participants affected compared to 0.5% in the initial population.

To qualify

If the results published by the scientists are formal, they still want to point out that it is important to carry out areal medical follow-upand that only a watch can in no way replace the work of doctors.

Furthermore, the step which made it possible to validate the hypothesis formulated by theApple Watchthat the guinea pigs were in danger had to be validated by the subsequent wearing of a patch that the participants had to return themselves. A significant step, which has discouraged some: it requires more time and actions than simply wearing a connected object on your wrist, which itself sends information via the internet.