Apple Watch Series 4 and the small print – what is Everyone Missing?
The good news is that the ECG has arrived on the center stage, the bad news is that most people didn’t read the small print! My doctor, a leading cardiologist is against it, why you ask? Very simple, he expects that there will be a flood of patients having “heart attacks” just because their Apple Watch is telling them that they are! Most of the netizens that will purchase it, are not “well informed” on medical matters (obviously) and will construe the alarms and alerts in a radical uneducated manner (obviously, again). But, according to my doctor, most cardiologists (or even physicians) won’t trust a report from the Apple Watch as, according to the FDA, “is not intended to provide a notification on every episode of irregular rhythm suggestive of AFib and the absence of a notification is not intended to indicate no disease process is present.”
Touted as the first wearable ECG, it seems that Apple jumped to a higher calling. There are many (dozens) of similar 1-lead gadgets on the market with a higher or lower quality and success rate. The plethora of devices are only 1-lead and are not traditional ECGs which are 12-leads and thus are rather an electro-magnetic strip that can “catch” heart rhythms over a period of time. As the FDA stated, there are limitations on this device, in that it isn’t meant for people younger than 22, nor is it suggested to be used by people with other known heart conditions that can disturb one’s heart rhythm.
So, if the ECG in the Apple Watch Series 4 is not for THAT critical moment of life or death, is there something out there that is? Good that you asked, as an Israeli start-up company has now entered the market with the Master Caution®- a garment to be worn that whilst being FDA approved it also has 12-leads and will indicate (correctly) if you are having an ischemic episode (heart attack). HealthWatch Technologies (www.healthwatchtech.com) offers the next generation in dressable smart sensing medical garments that is slowly becoming the gold standard of care. The Master Caution® is the first and only 3-12 lead ECG smart digital garment that is CE/FDA-approved. It advocates a full management solution for the purpose of transforming healthcare, offering a digital health platform and virtual medical care intertwined with the Medical Internet-of-Things. This non-lifestyle changing disruptive technology, based on wearable textile-electrodes and heart-sensing sensors and technologies, contains a myriad of accurate digital health diagnostic services including mobile cardiac telemetry, patient monitoring tele-health services and other services that allow for in-home medical services. Master Caution’s® continuous monitoring solutions assist clinicians in remotely monitoring their elderly or bed-ridden patients: being alerted of cardiac events such as ischemia and arrhythmias in near real-time, using the Master Caution®’s automatic analysis (AI), and thus securing personal health around-the-clock for improved patient safety.
So, the lesson to be learnt is – read the small print and purchase only the “real” McCoy and not a cheap (in this case expensive) and unreliable pseudo-medical/healthcare gadget.
The good news is that the ECG has arrived on the center stage, the bad news is that most people didn’t read the small print! My doctor, a leading cardiologist is against it, why you ask? Very simple, he expects that there will be a flood of patients having “heart attacks” just because their Apple Watch is telling them that they are! Most of the netizens that will purchase it, are not “well informed” on medical matters (obviously) and will construe the alarms and alerts in a radical uneducated manner (obviously, again). But, according to my doctor, most cardiologists (or even physicians) won’t trust a report from the Apple Watch as, according to the FDA, “is not intended to provide a notification on every episode of irregular rhythm suggestive of AFib and the absence of a notification is not intended to indicate no disease process is present.”
Touted as the first wearable ECG, it seems that Apple jumped to a higher calling. There are many (dozens) of similar 1-lead gadgets on the market with a higher or lower quality and success rate. The plethora of devices are only 1-lead and are not traditional ECGs which are 12-leads and thus are rather an electro-magnetic strip that can “catch” heart rhythms over a period of time. As the FDA stated, there are limitations on this device, in that it isn’t meant for people younger than 22, nor is it suggested to be used by people with other known heart conditions that can disturb one’s heart rhythm.
So, if the ECG in the Apple Watch Series 4 is not for THAT critical moment of life or death, is there something out there that is? Good that you asked, as an Israeli start-up company has now entered the market with the Master Caution®- a garment to be worn that whilst being FDA approved it also has 12-leads and will indicate (correctly) if you are having an ischemic episode (heart attack). HealthWatch Technologies (www.healthwatchtech.com) offers the next generation in dressable smart sensing medical garments that is slowly becoming the gold standard of care. The Master Caution® is the first and only 3-12 lead ECG smart digital garment that is CE/FDA-approved. It advocates a full management solution for the purpose of transforming healthcare, offering a digital health platform and virtual medical care intertwined with the Medical Internet-of-Things. This non-lifestyle changing disruptive technology, based on wearable textile-electrodes and heart-sensing sensors and technologies, contains a myriad of accurate digital health diagnostic services including mobile cardiac telemetry, patient monitoring tele-health services and other services that allow for in-home medical services. Master Caution’s® continuous monitoring solutions assist clinicians in remotely monitoring their elderly or bed-ridden patients: being alerted of cardiac events such as ischemia and arrhythmias in near real-time, using the Master Caution®’s automatic analysis (AI), and thus securing personal health around-the-clock for improved patient safety.
So, the lesson to be learned is – read the small print and purchase only the “real” McCoy and not a cheap (in this case expensive) and unreliable pseudo-medical/healthcare gadget.
