Apple está jugando un juego largo en salud digital. El objetivo principal, donde está Apple ahora, dijo recientemente el director ejecutivo Tim Cook, es "... capacitar a las personas para que se hagan cargo de su salud". Y a medida que se desarrollan las herramientas para tal propiedad, surgen nuevas oportunidades.</p><h2>Proteger a los humanos</h2><p>Sabemos que los dispositivos de Apple pueden mantenerse al día con los niveles de condición física. Sabemos que las herramientas de control de la salud cardíaca que fabrica ya están salvando vidas. Ahora, una nueva investigación muestra que los datos recopilados por un Apple Watch pueden permitir el monitoreo remoto de enfermedades cardíacas. Este es un paso importante en el plan inteligente de la compañía para la salud digital.
Data is the foundation of this plan. What Apple has shown in recent years is that the data your watch collects can make all the difference. But what's different about Stanford's latest research is that it not only shows that the Apple Watch can detect health problems, but also enables the same quality of heart health data that you'll get when you visit a clinic. This suggests that the device can collect robust enough data that remote medical personnel can use to make accurate decisions about heart health. This is important because more than 17 million people die each year from cardiovascular disease worldwide, or about 31% of all premature deaths worldwide.
What the research says
The latest research has seen 110 patients asked to use an iPhone and an Apple Watch to monitor their heart health. They were also asked to come to the clinic for tests. The study found that:
- In a clinical setting, Apple devices used a VascTrac app and were able to accurately assess "frailty" with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 85%.
- Outside the clinic, in an unsupervised setting, the test was 83% sensitive and 60% specific for assessing frailty.
In other words, the passive data collected at home was about as accurate as a clinical test (a six-minute walk test), the researchers said. The trial suggests that remote monitoring of heart health problems by the patient is possible. The researchers said: “While the benefits of telemedicine and remote monitoring (convenience, low cost, improved data quality) have been postulated for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic has made fast-track implementation a essential security. In this study, we have shown that smart device-based measurements, including the 6MWT (six-minute walk test) and passively collected activity data, provide clinically accurate and meaningful information about the functional capacity of patients, patients with CVD. And I think because it's data driven, the monitoring itself can be automated.
Burden of proof
This is an important step toward building remote health monitoring systems, which I'm increasingly certain is part of Apple's plans for digital health. It is essentially a space where AI finds human performance data and accurate analytics to provide automated health monitoring services remotely. The problem with remote patient monitoring is trust. We are used to using our watches and other devices to track personal data, such as steps taken, location, or even books read. However, when it comes to personal health data, we remain reluctant to share this information with large companies that appear to be beyond our control. Apple's stance on privacy is helpful, but other members of the chain are less committed to it, at least it seems so. There are also challenges related to access to these tools, the commodification of privacy, and the danger that the increasing use of digital devices for healthcare risks exacerbating existing health inequalities. (The University of Cambridge has published an interesting policy brief on this topic.)
Are you visiting an animal near you?
This latest Apple Watch research is a powerful demonstration of how citizen-generated data can provide valuable personal monitoring while also making it possible to search for existing conditions. Apple's research kit is an excellent illustration of this. We may be witnessing the first truly significant work in terms of AI-supported patient data analysis in the animal kingdom. Pet-focused companies like Vet AI use data collected by smart connected objects and artificial intelligence to monitor animal health. They then provide veterinary advice on the spot if an abnormality is detected via their Joii app. What's good for the animal kingdom will likely be part of human health care, meaning that key data collected by smart devices like the Apple Watch will end up being used by remote patient health systems, likely linked to diseases of the insurers. The problem, of course, is precision.
Where to find verifiable data
No one wants to be reliant on broken systems, and to rigorously test these remote digital health solutions requires vast amounts of data, combining actual diagnosis with vast amounts of patient data. After all, you need robust, accurate, and verifiable data to train the AI needed to monitor vital signs collected by connected wearables. Finding this data, even with ResearchKit, is expensive. That's why I think there was a race to get information from the UK NHS. It seems inevitable that someone would want to mine this information for information that can inform remote patient monitoring systems. The fact that we now know that data collected in real time by a wearable device can provide valuable information that itself can be automated means that we now know for sure that wearables will be a part of future healthcare. I hope Apple plays a role. Follow me on Twitter or join me in the AppleHolic's bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
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