How is the Apple Watch changing healthcare

In the dynamic landscape of healthcare, a significant transformation is underway as the industry embraces value-based care beyond traditional hospital confines. The evolution towards personalized and quality care is facilitated by connected healthcare delivery models, incorporating mobile, wireless, digital, and telemedicine technologies.

Among these innovations, the Apple Watch stands out as a trailblazer. With its next-gen technology features, the Apple Watch is revolutionizing healthcare services, enabling providers to engage with patients beyond routine visits. This shift ensures enhanced care, improved patient outcomes, and an overall exceptional healthcare experience.

Apple Watch’s Crucial Role in Modern Healthcare

Apple Watch has transcended its status as a mere accessory to become a crucial component of the connected health ecosystem, potentially saving lives. This AI-powered wearable device goes beyond tracking fitness; it acts as a health journal, offering critical patient data to healthcare providers for informed decision-making.

Simultaneously, it empowers users to be proactive about their health, serving as a fitness partner and facilitating seamless communication with care teams. With features like the ECG app, the Apple Watch takes a giant leap in patient care, monitoring vital signs and ensuring prompt responses in emergencies. The integration of this wearable is redefining healthcare, making it more personalized, preventive, and accessible.

Suppose you want to monitor your health, understand where you fall short, and identify the best way to improve your health. In that case, you need equipment that will provide you with a thorough understanding of your daily activities.

The Apple Watch can be the best equipment because it will allow you to monitor your heart rate, sleep cycles, and oxygen saturation and connect with your doctor. Your doctor can access the data generated by your Apple Watch and guide you regarding how you can improve your lifestyle. Here are some of the ways that Apple Watch is changing healthcare.

Enhancing Healthcare Mobility

The Apple Watch with the AirStrip application makes it easy for doctors and nurses to track their patients and their statistics. If you are a part of the healthcare industry, you will understand that keeping track of the meetings and scheduling these so that you can give ample time to your patients can prove challenging. However, with an Apple Watch connected to the AirStrip app, you can get all these done simply by looking at your wrist. Here is how you can simplify your routine and meetings with your patients:

• The AirStrip application makes it easy to stay organized as you will clearly understand your meetings in a day.
• The same application will provide easy access to your patient’s medical records. You have access to the blood pressure, heart rate, pill schedule, and lab results of every patient under your care.
• The easy access to all the reports and ensuring that these are at your fingertips will simplify the diagnostic process.
• You can communicate with your patients better. You do not have to keep opening and checking your laptop to find your patient’s details. You can get these by looking at your Apple Watch and accessing the AirStrip application. If you are hard-pressed for time and need information about a patient, you can now get it through a single application.

Thus, the Apple Watch and the AirStrip application make all information accessible to doctors and patients. This is essential for the healthcare industry, where time is of the essence, and doctors often need easy access to patient information to make quick diagnoses. These improve the mobility and convenience of the healthcare industry.

Monitoring Maternal & Fetal Health

Doctors often use Apple devices to monitor the heart rate of pregnant mothers and their babies. However, before launching the Apple Watch and the AirStrip application, you could only use these devices in the hospital; remote monitoring was impossible. This made things quite tricky for doctors, especially with patients who have complicated pregnancies.

Here, continuous monitoring of the heart rate of the mother and child is essential. With the Apple Watch, the doctor can do it even when the patient is home. The Air Strip application will make it easier for the doctor to identify changes in the mother’s heart rate or the foetus and take immediate action if necessary. When the mother goes into labour, you will find that the doctor can provide her with the support needed till she reaches the hospital. This is an excellent support for patients and doctors.

Moreover, the Apple Watch monitors heart rate and contractions during childbirth, distinguishing between the baby and the mother’s heart rate. Airstrip’s Sense4Baby system enables doctors to track prenatal health remotely, and the HIPAA-compliant Airstrip app can identify pregnancies at risk of stillbirth.

Helping patients with lifestyle diseases

Having your medical vitals at your fingertips ensures you can lead a healthy life. You will find that the Apple Watch will provide you with the details of your routine in a non-intrusive manner. Some of the ways that an Apple Watch can help you if you are suffering from a lifestyle disease are as follows:

• The Watch will provide details on how active you have been throughout the day. You do not have to download separate apps to check the number of steps you have taken or your activity level. A single app and the Apple Watch will give you a clear idea.
• If you have yet to reach the desired goal for the day, the Watch will send you notifications, such as emails or messages, without being intrusive. Simple reminders tell you that you must achieve the day’s fitness target.
• The Apple Watch has an ECG app that gives you and the healthcare provider heart rate details. This is essential if you are suffering from a lifestyle disease. Maintaining a healthy and steady heart rate is necessary; a sudden increase can be dangerous.

Thus, the Apple Watch is changing the healthcare industry by introducing an easy way for patients and healthcare providers to track their patients’ medical conditions, especially people with lifestyle diseases. This is important because such patients must lead a healthy life to keep their diseases in check, and an app that sends them frequent reminders to keep them on target is one of the easiest ways to do it.

Creates a complete Ecosystem

The application developed by Apple is easily accessible, you can add information and delete it directly from the Apple Watch. You now have the necessary information about your health at your fingertips. You must keep the medical reports the same otherwise, it would be unhelpful to your diagnosis.

However, you can change your weight and provide additional information, such as whether you have recently developed an allergy to certain foods in the application. It will be reflected in the Apple Watch. The medical data collected through the Apple Watch and the application is used by healthcare providers to give you a better diagnosis and to help you lead a healthier life.

Apple Upcoming Future Feature Highlights

As per new reports suggest that upcoming Apple Watch models will feature three additional sensors aimed at enhancing health monitoring. These sensors are designed to warn users about prediabetic conditions, detect rising blood pressure, and indicate potential sleep apnea.

The speculated blood glucose monitoring system employs noninvasive light through the skin to gauge blood glucose levels, offering prediabetic alerts without providing specific readings for diagnosed diabetics.

The blood pressure sensor identifies elevated blood pressure, accompanied by a “blood pressure journal” for tracking contributing factors. While it won’t display precise systolic and diastolic measurements, it aids in understanding hypertension triggers.

Additionally, a new sleep apnea sensor analyzes breathing patterns during sleep, estimates the condition, provides recommendations for consulting a physician, and expands on the existing sleep-tracking features.

Apple Watch market share

The Apple Watch continues to capture widespread attention, with over 40 million units sold in 2021, marking a 29% increase from the previous year. By 2020, Apple had exceeded 100 million Watch users and shipped more than 195 million units from 2016 to Q2 2022.

According to Statista, Apple currently, in Q2 2023, maintains a dominant position in the smartwatch market with a 22% global market share, as per Stats. Despite a sales decline in 2023 when compared to 27% in Q2 2022, Apple remains a frontrunner in the smartwatch industry.

It is followed by Samsung and Huawei with ten percent of the market share.

When it comes to best-selling Apple watches, the Apple Watch Series 7 currently holds the top spot as the best-selling smartwatch globally. Following closely is the Apple Watch SE, and the enduringly popular Apple Watch Series 3 holds the fifth position.

Final Thoughts

When you start using the Apple Watch and the AirStrip application, you will find managing your health easier. For your healthcare provider, it simplifies the diagnostic process as it gives you the details of your medical history and the present condition of your health through a single application. Thus, the Apple Watch is poised to change the healthcare system as it can provide more accessibility to patients and healthcare providers, making it easier to make prompt decisions and better diagnoses.

Reference URL: TechCrunch, 9to5mac, Gsmarena, Boston Technology