On Sept. 10, Apple announced the initiation of three new large-scale medical studies, including one focused on women’s health, one focused on hearing and one focused on cardiovascular health and movement.
In a statement, Jeff Williams, chief operating officer at Apple, said the success of the Apple Heart Study—a collaboration with Stanford that measured the success of an app in detecting atrial fibrillation among 400,000-plus U.S. adults —served as a jumping-off point for the newer projects.
“With the Apple Heart Study, we found that we could positively impact medical research in ways that help patients today and that make contributions that will benefit future generations,” he said. “Today’s announcement carries our commitment to health even further by engaging with participants on a larger scale than ever before.”
The Apple Heart and Movement Study will be a joint effort between Apple, the American Heart Association and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and will explore how heart rate and mobility signals translate to hospitalizations, falls, heart health and quality of life. The study was designed to promote healthy movement and improved CV health and will use Apple Watch apps to track mobility signals like walking pace or flights of stairs climbed.
“At the American Heart Association, we are a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives, and we are committed to educating and empowering people to be proactive in all areas of their heart health and general well-being,” AHA CEO Nancy Brown said in the statement. “We believe that emerging technology solutions that seek to provide deeper health insights offer great potential in getting us there. We are collaborating with Apple and Brigham and Women’s Hospital on the Apple Heart and Movement Study to explore the correlation between a broad range of physical activities and a person’s overall heart health.”
The two other studies—the Apple Women’s Health study and Apple Hearing Study—will focus on menstrual and gynecological health and hearing health, respectively. The Women’s Health Study, which will include partnerships with the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Sciences and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, stands to be the first long-term, large-scale study to inform screening and risk assessment of conditions like infertility, osteoporosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.
All three studies will be available on Apple’s new Research app, which will reportedly bring research scientists, academic institutions and healthcare organizations together with regular Apple users. The Research app will be available as a free download in the App Store later this year, according to the company.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.