According to AppleInsider, Apple’s vision of seeing the Apple Watch as a healthy future may take several years to realize, because the medical community’s acceptance of it is very low, and its focus is on collecting – but not using – data.
In a new article in the Financial Times, some doctors and others in the medical field detailed the difficulties of incorporating the Apple Watch into the daily care of patients. Some people say that the future for Apple Watch to truly improve user health on a larger scale is still far away.
Although Apple Watch and similar devices can collect many useful data points–in some cases, these data can reach clinical levels–but most doctors do not use it. For example, clinical psychologist Michael Bruce said that 99.9% of medical staff have not used it.
The problem is that this has not been accepted by the medical community, and it will not be accepted for a long time, said Dr. Steven LeBeouf, co-founder of the biometric company Valencell. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration) will have to approve it, and then doctors have to accept it, and then they need to be reimbursed for it. It’s a long process. It’s not as simple as people think.
Another issue is how to deal with the data collected by Apple Watch. Virta Health CEO Sami Inkinen said that providing people with data without personalized care advice is not enough to improve health.
It’s like selling weight scales to others: telling people what percentage they are overweight is not very difficult, Inkinen said. But how do we really change behavior and drive results, such as lowering your blood sugar, stopping your medications, and letting you lose weight? To me, this is something Apple Watch doesn’t have at all.
In addition, studies have shown that many Apple Watch users have identified themselves as healthy and suitable. Therefore, the target market for the device probably does not include the people whose Apple Watch can bring the most benefits.
However, some doctors hope that the Apple Watch can be used for patient care and research purposes. According to CDC data, chronic diseases are the main driving force for the US$3.8 trillion in medical expenses. They can also usually be prevented through exercise, diet, and early detection.
Harvard University researcher Shruthi Mahalingaiah used the Apple Watch of various generations to track the ovulation cycles of 70,000 women in a large study. Dr. Richard Milani, vice chairman of cardiology at Ochsner Health, has been using data collection equipment to monitor the data points of thousands of patients and using artificial intelligence to predict outcomes, such as who are more likely to fall. However, Milani admitted, Ordinary doctors will not do this.
Apple has been moving towards the goal of health and wellness. It has already cooperated with Johnson & Johnson and other companies and medical institutions to carry out large-scale research. The company added that it is still early in our health journey. The company stated that it was “inspired by the stories of some customers whose lives have been improved by the technology we designed and built in their own words they have been saved.