Sixty seconds on . . . Apple Watch

Showing off your bling?It’s for my health, actually. Apple Watches, like a lot of smart watches these days, can track a variety of health data, from steps to sleeping patterns—but also blood oxygen levels. On 1 May the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced1 that the Apple Watch had qualified for its medical device development tools (MDDT) programme.Is that a big deal?According to the FDA announcement it’s the “first digital health technology qualified under the MDDT programme, providing a non-invasive way to check estimates of atrial fibrillation in clinical studies.” That means it can be used to monitor biomarkers in clinical trials—specifically in trials for devices to treat cardiac ablation.2Watchful waiting, eh?Atrial fibrillation causes shortness of breath and fatigue and can be a sign of increased risk of stroke. The Apple Watch basically works in the same way as a pulse oximeter3—shining a light and using the absorption of…
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