How The Apple Watch Could Soon Track Parkinson's Symptoms
The Apple Watch might soon get the ability to monitor people for symptoms of Parkinson's, thanks to a new technology recently green-lighted by the FDA. The Apple Watch comes with a number of medical monitoring options, including ECG, blood oxygen saturation levels, high and low heart rates, irregular heart rhythm, fall detection, and more. All these features are available in the Watch Series 4 and later, but earlier Apple Watch models have only some of these features.
Parkinson's tracking has long been part of Apple's agenda, and was one of the many new research initiatives that the company demoed in 2015. Alongside Parkinson's, four other health issues that the company was looking to track with its gadgets were diabetes, heart health, asthma and breast cancer. As part of the plan, Apple released ResearchKit, an open-source framework that the company claimed would enable iPhone users to contribute to scientific research about health and medicine.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given clearance to new software that will use existing sensors in the Apple Watch to track Parkinson’s disease symptoms. Called StrivePD, the software has been developed by a San Fransisco-based startup called Rune Systems and uses the Apple Movement Disorder API to track tremors and other involuntary muscle movements using the Apple Watch. The software would use the same sensors that are already used by the watch for its much-acclaimed Fall Detection feature.
To detect symptoms of Parkinson's, the Apple Watch data will be combined with data from other sources, such as implants that can measure brain signals. In an interview with Reuters, Rune Labs CEO Brian Pepin said that the company is
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