One of the most promising uses for the Apple Watch is its potential for improving health and fitness. And now, thanks to a new study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Watch is being used for the first time as a tool to help those diagnosed with epilepsy.
EpiWatch, an app the school launched Thursday, will be the first to take advantage of the sensors in Apple’s wearable device for a medical study, said Gregory Krauss, a Johns Hopkins University professor of neurology and physician who specializes in the treatment of epilepsy.
There are already devices on the market that can take these measurements individually, Krauss said. But there’s no tool with quite the reach and versatility of the Watch.
From its vantage point on an epileptic’s wrist, the device can directly measure limb movement while also monitoring the blood flowing through the veins of someone in the throes of a seizure. The Watch’s multiple sensors makes it far easier to collect all of that information and look at it together.
“It’s been a goal to have a method for detecting when a person’s first going into a seizure” for years, Krauss said.
The sensors in the Apple Watch give patients and researchers a unique way to measure several important measures such as heart rate, lucidity during a seizure and limb movement.
The school is using Apple’s ResearchKit, an open-source toolbox for medical studies introduced in March. Building on Apple’s secure framework for collecting information, scientists can enroll study participants and collect data from Apple gadgets through specially designed apps.
In addition to epilepsy, researchers have used to the tool to gather data for studies on breast cancer, asthma, heart disease, autism and melanoma.
The information gathered from the Hopkins study will help researchers design and launch an app specifically for people suffering from epilepsy, Krauss said. “It’s pretty disabling condition and people are eager to have tools like this. Families want it for children; they want to work on management,” he said.
