BURST
Apple has introduced a new feature on some of its watch models meant to alert users to signs of chronic high blood pressure. Also known as hypertension, it affects approximately 8 million Canadians.
However, sufferers often have no symptoms . It is frequently undiagnosed and has become known as “the silent killer.”
In a report about the new tool, Running Magazine says even runners could be suffering from high blood pressure but not know it.
“This number will only grow as our population ages,” Dr. Heather Ross, head of cardiology at University Health Network’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre says on Apple Canada’s website.
“Despite being treatable, it frequently goes undetected and is a leading contributor to cardiovascular disease, including stroke, coronary disease, dementia, and heart failure,” says Ross. “One of the greatest challenges is improving screening to enable earlier diagnosis and treatment. That’s why hypertension notifications on Apple Watch are a true breakthrough and could be a real game changer.”
The tool is now available in over 150 countries and territories worldwide. Health Canada gave its approval of the new feature at the end of September.
While the Apple watch doesn’t take blood pressure readings akin to type that a patient would get in a doctor’s office, Apple says it reviews data collected by a watch sensor over 30-day periods and will notify users if consistent signs of hypertension are detected. These notifications provide users with the ability, the company says, to consider making potentially lifesaving behavioural changes or start treatment to reduce their risk of serious heart-health events.
If users receive a hypertension notification, it is recommended they take a measure of their blood pressure with a third-party blood pressure cuff and share the results with their provider at their next visit, so consideration of a diagnosis and treatment can occur when necessary. Users will get access to a detailed report to share with their healthcare provider.
The hypertension notification feature was developed with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies totalling over 100,000 participants, according to Apple. Its performance was then validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants.
While hypertension notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension, Apple expects the feature to notify over one million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
The hypertension notifications feature, says Apple, is available only to adults aged 22 and over, who have no previous hypertension diagnosis. The company warns against using the feature during pregnancy, since blood pressure may be temporarily lower or higher than normal.
It is available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Series 11 models and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3 models. It requires the paired iPhone to be running watchOS 26. Users can set up hypertension notifications in the Health app on iPhone by following the instructions set out here .
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