This morning STAT published an Op-Ed piece I wrote about the Apple Watch. Here’s how it starts:
Set your smartwatch alarm. You’re about to be barraged by tons of hype about the health benefits of the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, it won’t include essential information and data that can put these claims in proper perspective.
Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted how an Apple Watch detected a rapid heartbeat in an 18-year-old girl, who said the device saved her life. Now, with the presentation on Saturday of findings from an enormous Apple Watch study at the American College of Cardiology meeting1 in New Orleans , the hype meter is about to go to 11.
I have a concern about home monitoring of BP, especially when promoted as better than office monitoring. If our statistics on the risk of HTN are based on studies in which the BP is monitored in clinics then will home monitoring, even if more accurate measure of BP, be an accurate indicator of a persons risk of harm from their BP.
“… who said the device saved her life”: am I now to take medical advice from eighteen year olds? I’m reluctant enough to take it from doctors with all their under-evidenced hoopla.