Apple Watch is gaining sleep apnea detection
Following FDA approval, Apple will shortly launch its sleep apnea detection function for the Apple Watch, and has now printed a well being paper detailing its growth and verification.
Introduced as one among Apple’s main new well being options — alongside listening to well being — on the “It’s Glowtime” occasion, Apple Watch sleep apnea detection required FDA approval. The Meals and Drug Administration has now granted approval, and the function might be rolling out to at the very least the US presently. Apple has now additionally launched a 10-page report on the function, known as “Estimating Breathing Disturbances and Sleep Apnea Risk from Apple Watch.”
The doc will not be attributed to any authors, however in any other case is an everyday educational submitting on how the function works. It additionally particularly particulars how Apple’s analysis was validated by the broader well being group.
“Apple developed the Apple Watch algorithm,” says the complete report, “which uses accelerometer data to estimate Breathing Disturbances, with a large and diverse training set of adults undergoing simultaneous recordings from Apple Watch and a ground truth reference.”
“This included either in-lab polysomnography (PSG) or home sleep apnea test (HSAT) kits, which measure apnea and hypopnea events — the foundation of the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI),” it continues.
“Apple Watch tracks movement with triaxial accelerometer signals, which capture coarse motion of the body as well as fine movements including motion associated with breathing,” says the paper. “Apple developed an algorithm that uses the accelerometer time series data to classify Breathing Disturbances that occur during sleep tracking, which are temporary interruptions in the breathing pattern.”
Throughout growth, Apple says it performed analysis research utilizing a various inhabitants. There have been 3,936 nights the place 2,160 members examined both at house or in a sleep laboratory. There was then an extra 7,220 nights additional testing with 2,542 volunteers.
“Certified PSG technologists scored the clinical recordings according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) standards to provide reference labels of each apnea and hypopnea event,” says Apple. “It’s important to note that current AASM clinical standards allow multiple definitions for scoring sleep apnea events… both the training and validation studies used the strictest scoring definition, which requires a 4% oxygen desaturation for hypopneas.”