Apple expands health features in Apple Watch & AirPods Pro 2

Apple unveiled new health features for its Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2, targeting sleep apnoea and hearing health conditions. These innovations come as part of Apple's broader effort to integrate health-focused functionalities into its product lineup, catering to conditions that affect billions worldwide.

The Apple Watch now includes sleep apnoea notifications, utilising a new Breathing Disturbances metric. This metric, facilitated by the watch's accelerometer, tracks small wrist movements indicative of abnormal respiratory patterns during sleep. Users will receive notifications if these disturbances suggest moderate to severe sleep apnoea, allowing them to consult doctors for further diagnosis and potential treatment. This feature is expected to receive marketing authorisation from regulatory bodies, including the Food and Drug Administration, and will be available in over 150 countries, including the US, EU, and Japan.

"At Apple, we believe that technology can help you live a healthier life, and we're excited to enable incredible new health capabilities for serious conditions that affect billions of people around the world, while continuing to keep user data private," commented Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple's vice president of Health. "With Apple Watch, we continue to offer our users the ability to uncover important health conditions with new sleep apnoea notifications."

Apple explained that sleep apnoea is a disorder where breathing repeatedly stops during sleep, affecting over a billion individuals globally. If untreated, it can lead to severe health issues, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac complications. To assist in early detection, Apple Watch will analyse breathing disturbance data monthly, providing a PDF report which can be shared with healthcare professionals.

Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D., Professor and Director at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neurosciences, stated, "Empowering consumers everywhere to have the ability to reliably identify the presence of abnormal breathing patterns during sleep can help uncover a woefully underdiagnosed and serious medical condition such as sleep apnoea. This is a major step forward in improving public health."

In tandem, AirPods Pro 2 will offer an integrated hearing health experience, featuring Loud Sound Reduction, a clinical-grade Hearing Test, and an over-the-counter Hearing Aid option. This technology aims to assist individuals with hearing issues, with features anticipated to gain approval from various health authorities globally and set to launch in over 100 countries, including the US, Germany, and Japan.

The Hearing Test employs pure-tone audiometry, enabling users to take a hearing test from home in around five minutes. Results are stored in the Health app and can be shared with medical professionals. Rick Neitzel, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and principal investigator of the Apple Hearing Study, remarked, "Hearing health is a cornerstone of overall wellbeing. Protecting and preserving our hearing enhances our quality of life both in the short-term and long-term."

Additionally, the AirPods Pro 2 will include a customizable Hearing Aid feature. Utilising personal hearing profiles from the Hearing Test, the feature provides dynamic adjustments to enhance real-time conversations and interactions with the surrounding environment. Apple emphasised that this approach makes hearing assistance more accessible.

"For decades, Apple has led the way in designing products for everyone and supporting users with a broad spectrum of hearing abilities," said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple's senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. "These features on AirPods Pro will make an impact on so many people by driving more awareness around hearing health and empowering individuals with new customisable tools to help them stay connected."

Alongside these updates, Apple also introduced new features for Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad, aimed at enhancing users' overall health experiences. These features include a new Vitals app on Apple Watch and additional support in the Health app for pregnant users, providing comprehensive health tracking and insights.