Constant blood pressure measurement on the Apple Watch?

Apple would work well in this direction. According to several patents published by the Apple brand, the hypothesis of constantly monitoring blood pressure seems to make people in Cupertino happy.

Today, aloneheart rate measurement can be done almost continuously. If Apple succeeded in this feat, with constant monitoring of this essential health data, Apple would do better than an entire health industry. Because it is now possible to monitor blood pressure only with a cuff that automatically inflates and deflates. Used on certain patients during their nights, this system has shown its limits. It significantly disrupts patients' sleep cycles.

An external sensor on the chest

On Apple's side, the idea would be to usea new sensor on the Apple Watch. The latter would calculate the travel time of an ejection of blood from the left ventricle to the user's wrist. With this information, it would therefore be possible to measure blood pressure continuously, in a “non-invasive” manner, explains Apple in its patent.

But for this device to have a chance of working, patients will not only need a watch connected to it. As explained in the patent “Monitoring blood pressure using a multifunction device worn on the wrist”, a sensor must be attached to the heart, to measure the exact moment when the ejection of blood takes place.

This information cannot be collected by the watch itself. Not with the precision necessary to be able to give reliable results.

Apple therefore presents in its patent, a small square sensor, attached to the patient's chest. A solution which provides reliability, but which takes away a large market share from the firm. Not all of his clients will want an electrode on their chest to measure their blood pressure.

It remains to be seen what impact such an innovation could have on the autonomy of the watch. Constant connection to an external sensor risks significantly reducing the life expectancy of a charge.