Apple Unveils Apple Watch Series 6 With Blood Oxygen Monitoring and New Color Options

[Veinticinco]

I take your point and respect your logic but, at first blush, it reads like someone arguing against a camera in phones, circa 2004. What that long debate yielded was the concept of "the best camera is the one you have with you" and then increased consumer demand led to cameras becoming a focal point for competition. I think these healthcare advances are really similar. For me, and I think many others, the SPo2 monitoring function adds value to an already great and, relative to its value, inexpensive device. I used to drop more than 400$ every couple of years for garmin's latest forerunner, a device that had rudimentary gps and heart rate functions. I feel like we are in a new era of fitness/health wearables and I embrace it. I happily preordered a titanium series 6 because my series 4 has been flawless. It's also worth noting that my series 4 alerted me to a very serious aFib event last October. That has led to a year of examinations and the discovery of heart issues that will be greatly helped by early treatment and intervention. When it comes to the medical information provided by apple watch, I'm all in. Having said that, I won't take the SPo2 data as gospel. I will, however, try to gauge its accuracy against the devices I currently have and, if it's reasonably close, the best medical wearable will be the one I have with me.

Your camera analogy is flawed as a photo opportunity doesn't really equate to normalised respiratory function, but I get the gist. However I'd argue that the blood oxygen sensor in the AW6 isn't in any sense a "healthcare advance" given it's a consumer grade sensor (based on 40 year old tech that other wearables have also adapted, Apple aren't the first) that cannot accurately and pre-symptomatically track or predict clinically meaningful deficits in SpO2.

I even made the comparison with the ECG function (now approved in many countries as a validated early warning medical device to spot AF albeit with a prominent MI exclusion disclaimer) and you say yourself you've benefited from this, which is great to hear. But instead of reinforcing the hugely significant difference between the two functions, you seem to think any additional sensor is good, as long you don't "take it as gospel" and can measure it against existing medical grade apparatus. Problem being that's a slippery and dangerous slope as any equivalence will be artefactual, subject to confirmation bias, and thus inherently unreliable.

Apple Legal knows that (hence the lack of medical regulatory statements or indeed spurious health claims) but Apple Marketing is looking to trade on that lack of awareness to make sales of an otherwise barely incremental AW update, or worse exploit the fear induced by the pandemic where many people misinterpret claims or have become armchair MDs. You're obviously intelligent and empowered in managing your condition, but there are many out there - even in this thread - that aren't so rational and and have swallowed the implied use of the AW6 with its blood oxygen feature as "added value" in terms of being a viable COVID early symptom monitor. It isn't.

I approve of your choice of finish though as we share the same taste...I have the titanium S5

 

[BeerboyUK]

My 30EUR Pulse oximeter, purchased in 2017 is still working fine on the original battery. As I have a series 5 I see no compelling need to upgrade. Something that could non invasively measure blood sugar levels in addition would be a compelling purchase. As a device that one would always have available it could serve as a tool to suggest testing with a more clinically accurate device.

 

[xmach]

I’m an MD. I don’t need to learn “the facts” as you call them.

To the contrary, anyone who claims to hold a doctorate has a heightened responsibility to be fully aware of what is known, and what is unknown -- and in turn, to make careful interpretations and judgements based upon both of those factors.

 

[xmach]

Yes. A pulse oximeter, which you can buy online, is almost certainly going to be more accurate. But you won't always have it with you, whereas the watch is always on your wrist. If the watch is accurate enough to detect a general pattern (e.g. falling O2 sat) that would then lead you to confirm with a pulse oximeter, that's a huge win. A measurement doesn't always have to be perfectly accurate to be helpful; sometimes frequency is more important for screening/monitoring.

Good point.

And "If the watch is accurate enough to detect a general pattern" is exactly the data I was asking about. Has this been published by Apple, or an independent source?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Does anyone know what the screens are made of? Do they follow the older models in that the SS ones use sapphire on the front/back. I see everything has sapphire/ceramic back but what about the face?

SS has sapphire and the aluminum has ion-x.