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I hope everyone knows this is pretty much worthless for 99% of users. Why don't we ALL get EKGs every day or every time we go to the doctor? because there's no reason to and it would lead to false positive diagnoses with harm caused to patients. "Should not be used for patients with known arrythmias." So this is basically for an extremely small subset of buyers who have some kind of coronary artery disease or heart pathology that makes them susceptible to possibly developing A-fib.


Totally agree. The extra we’ll all pay for the EKG we’ll never use probably subsidizes the cost for those who need it.

I wish it didn’t have. Frankly, I can’t believe they’re charging what they’re charging.

I’ve been waiting for this to come out to see if want this watch or something from Garmin that will work better as a fitness watch...which is really what I need.

Apple just made my decision a lot easier.
 
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Yeah, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the FDA's approach regarding approvals is more along the lines of "go ahead, but we'll go after you if it turns out to be unsafe or completely unfit for its purpose", whereas most other health authorities will require more data regarding safety and effects before they approve a product.

Bascially: Reactive vs proactive action. Both have their pros and cons – one allows for a quicker time-to-market with less red tape, while the other is usually better at weeding out bad or dangerous products before they do harm.

I don't know about that. Qardio's Qardio Core wearable electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) monitor is still not a received US FDA clearance. It available in Canada and Europe. It's been years.
 
I hope everyone knows this is pretty much worthless for 99% of users. Why don't we ALL get EKGs every day or every time we go to the doctor? because there's no reason to and it would lead to false positive diagnoses with harm caused to patients. "Should not be used for patients with known arrythmias." So this is basically for an extremely small subset of buyers who have some kind of coronary artery disease or heart pathology that makes them susceptible to possibly developing A-fib.
I understand your point, but there are myriad uses for the EKG that have great value in medical research. For example, I do research studying the EKG as a biomarker for the development of Parkinson's disease. We are working on algorithms to identify Parkinson's many years before the motor symptoms present--which would allow the intervention with disease modifying therapies at a time when they're most likely to be effective. There are numerous other examples of this, and having this type of data to mine will create amazing opportunities to identify associations with other diseases as well.
 
What some folks are missing here is that--

1. A lot more than 1% of the US population have heart issues

2. It is a tool at the moment, not a substitute for a doctor

3. It is the future, in its early stages


Even the health features on my S0 have been useful to me.
 
I hope everyone knows this is pretty much worthless for 99% of users. Why don't we ALL get EKGs every day or every time we go to the doctor? because there's no reason to and it would lead to false positive diagnoses with harm caused to patients. "Should not be used for patients with known arrythmias." So this is basically for an extremely small subset of buyers who have some kind of coronary artery disease or heart pathology that makes them susceptible to possibly developing A-fib.
This is just so Apple can have another new story of how “an Apple Watch saved my parent’s life”. Now everyone will buy one for their parents... it’s like the life alert ad but with nicer Milanese loops.
 
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I guess I can just cross the border and buy the US version of the Apple Watch, since the Canadian version won't have ECG enabled.
 
Does this mean that it it limited to watches sold in the USA? or is there some region restriction? I'm in India and am wondering if getting an AW from the USA will get me the ECG feature or not.
 
Limited to US??? Why??? This is an ESSENTIAL and sensible feature!! As someone who suffers from SVT arrhythmia this is the reason that tipped me over to buying another Apple Watch. This is utter bullsh*t. :mad:

Be patient. My guess is that there were several factors that led to this decision.

  1. They need to go through the regulatory agencies for each country.
  2. They wanted to keep this secret before announcing it and once you start going through the regulatory process, you are no longer in control of privacy.
  3. They need to test this close to home before opening it to a wider audience. They have to be more careful with health-related features than others.
 
Well, I guess my series 2 sees another year of use.

Anything to justify my not upgrading.
No point in upgrading here. No ECG over here and probably won’t see it coming during the lifetime of the watch. I can’t even use the LTE on my series 3 because my carrier doesn’t support it still.
 
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"...it appears ECG readings are going to be limited to Apple Watch models sold in the United States"

WHY?
 
Not sure if that's even physically possible. In order to take BP, you need to constrict the blood vessel (arm) and then slowly release to get your diastolic and systolic pressure numbers. It's not something you can measure from IR or some scanner.
Yes, thanks. I thought that as well. But, if it could I would buy one. My S0 is working just fine;)
 
Is anything available at launch anymore? Dual-sim nope, AirPlay 2 nope, AirPower what’s that, ECG naw, Apple Pay cash no sir, portrait mode beta. Apple has developed a bad habit it seems.
Take your pick:
  • Release at .0 anyway, even if it’s not ready;
  • Release some months after the .0;
  • Hold 3-9 months for the next .0 release
AirPower was promised for 2018 and may yet deliver, but if it’s not ready they’ll hold it over into 2019. They knew it wasn’t trivial, that’s why they said last September it could be more than a year away. The rumor is it has 22 charging coils. Innovation is hard.

The alternative is not to pre-announce but I’d rather get as much advance notice of upcoming products as Apple’s willing to give. Some prefer to be kept in the dark, but I’m not sure what the advantage is to that.
 
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I don't think many doctors will love this feature. Imagine the quantity of patients getting to the doctor's office or ER for no serious reason. Like people who suffer from anxiety and panic disorder usually have their resting heart rate easily triggered, people who are overweight/obese do have a higher resting heart rate too, and very fit people will often have resting heart rates that fall into the bradycardia category - it's not like they have a heart condition, it's their "normal" physiology. Most adults also experience ectopic heartbeats that are harmless and might increase after taking caffeine or other heart stimulants (including certain medications). Now imagine the watch notifying you every time your heart skips a beat or pounds an extra one. A lot of people will probably overreact and think they have a serious condition or are about to die when actually it is normal. Honestly I don't think this is the best thing.
 
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I wonder if we can once again bypass this regional regulations bullcrap with some creativity, by simply setting the region to US. :rolleyes:
 
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