Apple watch series 6 is the latest generation of Apple smartwatches that has multiple benefits for health, Apple is magnifying its existence in digital health and providing more health features to its consumers, it’s an intelligent monitor for people’s health and might offer extra features that can be useful in the pandemic and for Covid-19 patients as well.
Apple Watch Series 6 increases the level of protection to its wearers as it offers a lot of important features we will mention in this article.
Apple received FDA approval before releasing the new watch, which includes options that match many approved medical devices.
The new watch has 50 percent better sound recording quality and is able to record all data for the development of the wearer’s health, helping to prevent early illnesses such as strokes and heart attacks.
Key Health Features in Apple Watch 6
This section will mention some of the features of the Apple Watch 6, just the key features that are related to digital health.
Fall Detection & Emergency Calls
The new watch is designed to automatically call emergency services and sending the location of the patient to emergency contacts.
Thanks to the new accelerometer and gyroscope, Apple Watch can detect if the patient has suffered a fall, as an alert for a strong fall happens, and you can call emergency services or dismiss the alert.
In the event that the patient does not respond after 60 seconds, an emergency call is made automatically and a message is sent to the people chosen by the patient to be contacted in emergency situations.
Heart Rate Measurement & Alerts
Among the health features of this smartwatch is that the sensors on the back of the watch in addition to the digital crown on the side detect heart rate and the entire process takes only 30 seconds.
Many patients are not aware of their low or high heart rate and the underlying causes of such a condition are not diagnosed.
But Apple Watch Series 6 is able to scan the heart and alert the patient to an irregular heartbeat, which helps the patient to take the necessary action to consult the physician.
This watch provides the ability to know the heart rate, and an electrical graphic image of the heart can be displayed by touching the digital crown after opening the application, and the report can then be sent as a PDF to the phone for display on the relevant application.
Apple Watch 6 Measure Electrocardiogram ECG
Starting from series 4, Apple has added a new feature that is very beneficial for people who are looking after their cardiac health, this feature is Electrocardiogram (ECG), this feature is to measure the timing and strength of electrical signals that make the heartbeat.
To draw an ECG for your heart, you should put your finger over the crown in the right side of the watch for 30 seconds without need to press, after it finishes measurement you can add any existing symptoms then can be saved to your records.
The results can be given on the ECG app in multiples potentials like Sinus rhytm, Atrial fibrillation, or inconclusive result.
But apple also recommends not to depend on these results and not to consider it as a medical check and you should call your physician in case if you feel any symptoms.
How Can Covid Patients Benefit From Apple Watch Series 6?
Blood Oxygen Level SpO2
Apple Watch 6 is empowered with a new feature to measure blood oxygen saturation or the percentage of oxygen in blood SpO2, this is considered a good addition from Apple to its smartwatches.
To simply understand SpO2, it is the percentage of oxygen that red blood cells transport from the lungs to the rest of the body.
It’s about the quality of distributing oxygen to all body cells, this is considered one of the most important indicators of respiratory health of human, one of the dangerous symptoms Covid-19 is the low SpO2, as the body loses its ability to distribute oxygen properly to the whole body organs and cells.
Apple Watch 6 is capable of measuring blood oxygen within 15 seconds while your hands should remain on a flat surface, depending on a special sensor that uses 4 groups of green, red and infrared light to measure the light reflected from the blood, then relying on an advanced custom algorithm to analyze the captured data which depends on the color of blood that indicates the oxygen level.
This feature is designed to measure SpO2 from 70% to 100%, and it can work anytime, The watch can regularly measure the oxygen level in the blood even when you fall asleep and display the data through the iPhone’s “health” app.
The SpO2 percentage should remain above 95% and values below 95% might indicate a problem. but in case of low SpO2 the watch doesn’t give an alert unlike the feature of heart rate measurement.
Apple additionally says it’s miles partnering with many researchers to begin large-scale research primarily based totally at the characteristic of measuring blood oxygen withinside the new Apple Watch 6, consisting of checking out to peer if it could discover whether or not someone has COVID-19.
At the same time, Apple mentioned that this feature is not intended for diagnostic usage and it’s just for general wellness objectives.
Hand Wash Detector
The Apple watch series 6 has one more nice feature regarding the Covid-19 pandemic , it detects automatically if you washed your hands and sends a reminder to wash your hands if you didn’t.
This feature works through motion sensors that detect motion of the hand and the sound of the pouring water, it shows a counter on the screen that should last for 20 seconds which is the right duration for the hand wash, and if you washed your hands less than 20 seconds it gives an alert that tells you to keep washing your hands.
