Biogen Launches Study to Find Out if Apple Watch and iPhone Can Detect Declining Cognitive Health

[MacRumors]

Biotechnology company Biogen today announced the launch of a new Apple Watch study in partnership with Apple that is aimed at investigating the role the iPhone and Apple Watch might play in monitoring cognitive performance and screening for decline in cognitive health.

The multi-year study will launch later this year and will enroll both young and aging adults with a range of cognitive performance. The study's objectives are to find digital biomarkers for helping to monitor cognitive performance over time and identifying early signs of mild cognitive impairment.

Mild cognitive impairment impacts approximately 15 to 20 percent of adults over the age of 64, and the onset of symptoms are often subtle, so it can take months or even years before health care providers become aware of the problem.

"Working in collaboration with Biogen, we hope this study can help the medical community better understand a person's cognitive performance by simply having them engage with their Apple Watch and iPhone," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "We're looking forward to learning about the impact our technology can have in delivering better health outcomes through improved detection of declining cognitive health."

The study will be privacy-focused with customer control, transparency, and data security in mind. Participants will be offered a detailed consent form listing the data types collected and how that data may be used and shared. Data is stored encrypted and in systems with strong security controls.

Article Link: Biogen Launches Study to Find Out if Apple Watch and iPhone Can Detect Declining Cognitive Health

 

[xander49x]

Sign me up. I love apple study's

 

[Neepman]

Just keep changing the interface for no reason and adding more pointless gestures and everyone will appear to be less cognitive.

 

[subi257]

I would love that, in my slight bit of hypochondriac-ness It's bugging the Sh^t out of the me that I don't remember Sh*t like I used to.

 

[now i see it]

a study should be launched to find out if using Apple products can cause declining cognitive health.
My suspicion is that they do - I think / wait- I'm not sure- what was I saying? - oh never mind

 

[Edgecrusherr]

You can pretty much figure that out from someone's Twitter

 

[nt5672]

Can't wait for the government and my insurance company to get ahold of this. Off to the internment camp for me because I'm a danger to society.

 

[trhoffmann]

At 69 I will be very interested to participate in this study. I‘ll be interested to see how they measure declining cognition. Some sort of initial test/survey will be needed to establish a baseline, no?

 

[DogHouseDub]

Biogen? Isn't that the company that hosted the SARS-CoV2 superspreader event in Boston back in February 2020? The same SARS-CoV2 that may cause long-lived cognitive impairment?

 

[williamyx]

Biogen? Isn't that the company that hosted the SARS-CoV2 superspreader event in Boston back in February 2020? The same SARS-CoV2 that may cause long-lived cognitive impairment?

Nice try, but it was early enough in the pandemic that frankly no one knew what was going on.

Frankly I'm interested in why Biogen in particular is doing this study given that they're not testing any new drugs with this, and not any other researchers.

 

[DogHouseDub]

Nice try, but it was early enough in the pandemic that frankly no one knew what was going on.

Frankly I'm interested in why Biogen in particular is doing this study given that they're not testing any new drugs with this, and not any other researchers.

at the time, many of us (my team in Cambridge included) had cancelled travel and were limiting on site activities. As scientists, we're supposed to know better.

Biogen works in neuroscience - if they can replace standalone wearable motion sensors with a mass-produced device, it would simplify clinical studies.

 

[travelsheep]

It's like screen time stats, but framed as a study: For every 10 hours of TikTok cognitive health goes down 10 points.

 

[Psychicbob]

By “Cognitive Decline”, I think it means “You haven’t bought any Apple products for over 12 months. You must be ill!”