Story At A Glance
- Apple launches three studies to focus on women, hearing and movement.
- A number types of data will be used, such as heart rate, mobility signals and ambient noise.
- Since the studies are observational, some experts are wondering how useful the results will be.
Apple announced three health studies that will use data from their customer’s iPhones and Apple Watches. The studies, which will allow users to opt-in to give permission for the company to collect data, will focus on measuring mobility, menstruation and hearing. The company announced the studies in September, and people can now choose to participate.
Previously, researchers at Stanford have worked with data from Apple Watches to test whether it could detect an irregular heartbeat. The studies found that an older version of the watch could detect irregular heartbeats, but it still isn’t foolproof. The new studies are called the Apple Heart and Movement Study, the Apple Women’s Study and the Apple Hearing Study, according to a statement from the company. If people want to participate, they’ll have to download the new Research app.
Apple has ambitious goals for enrolling their customers, aiming to get one million people into the heart and movement study, reports STAT. The women’s study will focus on menstrual cycles and gynecological conditions, according to the statement. The heart and movement study will focus on heart rate and mobility signals, like going up stairs, and look for connections to hospitalizations, falls, heart health and quality of life. The hearing study will focus on factors that may impact hearing, like everyday sounds that people are exposed to.
But what kinds of data will these studies collect? With the Apple Watch, they can collect data on heart rate and movement. In the Research app, you can enter in observations about your health like menstrual cycle tracking in women using the Health app. For the hearing study, the iPhone and Noise app on Apple Watch can collect data about ambient sounds and pair that with surveys and hearing tests.
All of the studies are observational, meaning the most they can do is draw correlations. Experts are wondering how useful this will be. “This is the big question. Is this ‘so what’? Or are we going to learn something meaningful we don’t know yet?” says Ethan Weiss of University of California, San Francisco to The New York Times. And some experts express concerns about Apple having so much power and data.
But other experts are optimistic because of the uniqueness of the studies. “I’m most excited about the fact that we’ll be able to collect women’s menstrual cycle information in ways that we’ve not really done before,” says Michelle A. Williams of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health to the Times.
The studies will be actively enrolling participants for the next two years, so it might take some time for Apple to be able to announce any results.
Published on Nov 15,2019