by Dan Moren
An ER trip with an Apple Watch
IT consultant (and Six Colors member) Tom Bridge shares this story about how his Apple Watch’s ECG feature helped his doctors diagnose a condition:
As soon as the tele-doc came on screen, the nurse rotated my phone and put it up to the camera to show the doctor the rapid rhythm from half an hour earlier.
“Oh, that’s an SVT,” he said immediately.
I didn’t see what it had to do with Ford’s Special Vehicle Team, but he clarified that he meant Supraventricular Tachycardia. They wanted to make sure labs were taken, and that nothing abnormal in my blood work showed a more troubling cause. But the diagnosis was there in an instant, thanks to my wrist watch.
There’s been some hemming and hawing about the health features of the Series 4 Apple Watch, with some concerned that it leads to people seeking costly medical attention when they don’t need it, but this also isn’t the first story I’ve heard about someone whose Apple Watch actually helped them capture important data.
Having the ability to deploy this kind of technology to people everywhere is a hugely powerful tool, and there’s a reason that Apple is pushing health as one of their big growth areas.