When will watch measure blood pressure?

[calliex]

My neighbor got no name brand smart watch from Amazon. She asked me to help her to pair it to her iPhone. It came with an app and was easily paired. It measures heart rate, BP and oxygen. Any way I was suspect about the BP measurement. I took my BP with it and measured 124/70 and my usual BP is 135/80. I have high BP and have to monitor it. Having on the watch would be convenient but if it is not accurate its worthless. The high end watches like apple and garmin have not added this function to their devices. Not sure what to this means.

 

[Howard2k]

It's not ready yet. No concrete rumours at this point so likely not AW9.

 

[BenGoren]

That’s not a blood pressure measurement.

It’s a random number generator.

The only truly accurate way to measure blood pressure today is with a cuff that compresses your upper arm. The ones that compress the wrist aren’t bad, but they’re not as accurate.

There’s enough “signal” in certain optical (and maybe acoustic?) measurements of the wrist such that we should expect “good enough” blood pressure measurements from future smartwatches. But the sensors to do so reliably haven’t been invented and / or scaled down to fit in a smartwatch, and / or it requires algorithms and / or computing power that watches don’t yet have.

If your life depends on accurate blood pressure, wait for the FDA to approve the device. Apple won’t release a watch that measures blood pressure without FDA approval, so the simple answer is to just wait for an Apple watch.

b&

 

[dz5b609]

My neighbor got no name brand smart watch from Amazon. She asked me to help her to pair it to her iPhone. It came with an app and was easily paired. It measures heart rate, BP and oxygen. Any way I was suspect about the BP measurement. I took my BP with it and measured 124/70 and my usual BP is 135/80. I have high BP and have to monitor it. Having on the watch would be convenient but if it is not accurate its worthless. The high end watches like apple and garmin have not added this function to their devices. Not sure what to this means.

You should have measured it twice and measured it back to back with your usual BP monitor and you would have known it's ********. There's no existing sensor yet to measure BP without a compress.

That's why the big brands don't have it, because it doesn't exist.

 

[izzle22]

That’s not a blood pressure measurement.

It’s a random number generator.

The only truly accurate way to measure blood pressure today is with a cuff that compresses your upper arm. The ones that compress the wrist aren’t bad, but they’re not as accurate.

There’s enough “signal” in certain optical (and maybe acoustic?) measurements of the wrist such that we should expect “good enough” blood pressure measurements from future smartwatches. But the sensors to do so reliably haven’t been invented and / or scaled down to fit in a smartwatch, and / or it requires algorithms and / or computing power that watches don’t yet have.

If your life depends on accurate blood pressure, wait for the FDA to approve the device. Apple won’t release a watch that measures blood pressure without FDA approval, so the simple answer is to just wait for an Apple watch.

b&

This^^ There probably won't be a true BP monitor on an Apple watch for many years due to the lack of technology in this department. As the others have said with out the compression on the upper arm true BP cannot be acquired at the moment.

 

[calliex]

Agree with all your replies. There are so many of these inexspensive smart watches on Amazon, etc, that claim they do BP and Sugar. I have come across three people who bought them and believe in them.

 

[Vref]

The tech just doesn’t work like that

Frankly I wouldn’t want to wear a automatic BP cuff anyways


Outside of major trauma, or a SVT or something, just take it manual every couple days if you want to be belt and suspenders about it

 

[iamasmith]

I don't dig that this is useful at all.

BP measurements should be taken with the same kind of position, clothing placement etc. as tons of things can raise your BP by 10 or so such as having a full bladder or sitting with your legs resting on a seat with your feet not touching the ground. Just read something that said that unless these factors are right it could be out by as much as 40!

I took 2 types of BP meds for 8 years before losing 1/4 of my body weight and the Dr telling me that I should stop them completely but I DO still take the measurements daily.

 

[Daverich4]

I use an OMRON BP Cuff. After I take a reading it synchs right into Apple Health. Easy Peasy.

 

[Vref]

Manual reading with a cheap Riteaid cuff and littmann master cardiology, I don’t bother to input it into my iPhone

 

[BenGoren]

I don't dig that this is useful at all.

BP measurements should be taken with the same kind of position, clothing placement etc. as tons of things can raise your BP by 10 or so such as having a full bladder or sitting with your legs resting on a seat with your feet not touching the ground. Just read something that said that unless these factors are right it could be out by as much as 40!

I took 2 types of BP meds for 8 years before losing 1/4 of my body weight and the Dr telling me that I should stop them completely but I DO still take the measurements daily.

Reminds me of the time I went to the doctor with some pretty serious classic lower back pain, to the point that even sitting was nigh on unbearable. The tech raced ahead of me to take me from the lobby to the exam room, and I did all I could to keep up. He then immediately takes my blood pressure, as I’m standing and breathlessly answering his questions about how bad the pain is.

The doctor then had the nerve to begin his examination not with anything related to my back, but a lecture about how I needed to immediately begin strong blood pressure medication else I’d have a stroke before the year was out. I was still standing, still in obvious pain, and he didn’t even bother to take my blood pressure himself.

I should add that I’m fit — I’m not a model, but it should be obvious that I exercise regularly and eat well.

I explained that that was in no way a resting measurement, and can we please do something about my back?

No, he couldn’t, as it turned out …

Anyway, I would love to have my blood pressure sampled as often as the watch currently samples heart rate. Yes, it would spike to “OMG” levels when I’m doing pull-ups — but it’s supposed to. And, with enough people collecting enough such measurements, I’m certain we could get another window into heart health. Does blood pressure go even higher under exertion in athletes than sedate people? Does it not go as high? Does it recover faster or slower? How quickly does it climb? I don’t think we know, but I’m certain that it would be far more useful than heart rate variability as an indicator of cardiovascular fitness.

It would also be great as a stress indicator, too. And could it be used to predict the onset of illness after infection? Is there a correlation between baseline changes in walking blood pressure and migraine onset? Can you predict arterial flexibility based on the rate at which pressure changes in some circumstance? All sorts of really interesting things to explore.

b&

 

[JustAnExpat]

I would say around 2035 or sometime around there. I don't know how it's possible to take blood pressure from the wrist . To take blood pressure using current technology, blood must stop flowing to the vain, and then restarted. There are devices that you can put on your fingertips to measure blood pressure, but it's not that accurate. I think doing it from the wrist would be harder, unless there is a band that can somehow measure the blood pressure (since the vines are accessible on the wrist). See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279251/

I would expect blood sugar monitoring to come first.

 

[Graham Caracas]

If you're looking to trust your health to a toy watch, you have a lot to learn about consumer electronics.

 

[izzle22]

If you're looking to trust your health to a toy watch, you have a lot to learn about consumer electronics.

You seem to have an unhealthy hatred for the Apple Watch. I've seen you bash on the "toy watch" in several threads. Maybe you should stick to threads that interest you rather than getting so upset about a watch you don't like.

Never have understood what draws folks to threads about products they don't care for just to bash them...

 

[Bichon]

I use an OMRON BP Cuff. After I take a reading it synchs right into Apple Health. Easy Peasy.

Not crazy about Omron's privacy policy, since they collect your blood pressure readings too (with no option to opt out), but I suppose it's worth it...

 

[Howard2k]

You seem to have an unhealthy hatred for the Apple Watch. I've seen you bash on the "toy watch" in several threads. Maybe you should stick to threads that interest you rather than getting so upset about a watch you don't like.

Never have understood what draws folks to threads about products they don't care for just to bash them...

Who knows. Some people can’t afford the Watch and get angry. Others just like to wind people up for fun.

The mods don’t seem to have an issue with it - in her own way the poster is active on the site and probably generating revenue.

 

[izzle22]

Who knows. Some people can’t afford the Watch and get angry. Others just like to wind people up for fun.

The mods don’t seem to have an issue with it - in her own way the poster is active on the site and probably generating revenue.

Right?! It's just nuts to be so caught up in a product to just go out of the way searching threads to bash it.

It has to be one of these things you mentioned. I mean there are products I don't care for but by no means am I going to search out threads in forums to bash them.

 

[Howard2k]

Right?! It's just nuts to be so caught up in a product to just go out of the way searching threads to bash it.

It has to be one of these things you mentioned. I mean there are products I don't care for but by no means am I going to search out threads in forums to bash them.

I’m going to go to the Mac Mini forum because everyone needs to know why I don’t own one. I’m THAT important.

 

[adrianlondon]

I've done some research on this as part of my recent master's.

I've trialled this device: https://aktiia.com/uk/hp5

It's accurate in the way that those fat-measuring scales are: iit can relatively accurately detect changes but not actual values.

In order to calibrate it one has to use the (included) upper-arm cuff to get accurate BP measurements, and then wear the watch. The watch then remains accurate for a few weeks, so periodic recalibration is needed with the cuff device.

The Aktiia device is a certified medical device, which means it is accepted as accurate by the medical profession. As far as I'm aware there are no devices at all which have been certified that don't rely on a cuff device for at least periodic calibrations.

In other words, there are no watch-only blood pressure monitors at all.