It works, he types, from his emergency room bed.
About 4 hours ago I suddenly felt very odd, and my heart started dancing, so I ran an ECG test on my watch and it suggested I go see a doctor SOON because I was in the middle of an attack of atrial fibrillation.
I did and apart from some missing chest hair from where the ER nurses attached their proper ECG sensors, everything is okay now.
Glad I have the watch. It got me on my way to the hospital very quickly.
Isnât that great! Best wishes for continued health (and hair regrowth)
Glad youâre well, I love that Apple can provide this. I just wish they were cheaper so more people could wear them.
I wish my watch did ECG 6.5 years ago when I had my Heart Attack. I only went to A&E 3 hours later.
Good to hear you are doing well!!
Stories like this make me happy Apple decided to make the watch a health device and not a fashion statement.
Clarke - Very glad to hear you are well and got help quickly.
That said - as a physician who has followed computer applications in medicine for literally decades, I fail to see the value in the watch ECG.
Itâs great that you went to the ER. But what if your watch had shown a normal rhythm? Given your symptoms you still should have gone to the ER. So did the watch help here? Might it actually harm some people who choose not to seek medical advice when they need it but their EKG happens to be normal?
It is a fitness device. It is not a health device.
Fitness and health are two very different concepts.
Semantics. You know what I meant.
Yes. Apple may have no interest in getting into the medical device business.
â Bloomberg shows an Apple that is at odds with itself over its place in health and fitness. It continues to imbue its products with health-focused features, like a possible AirPods hearing aid function or last yearâs Apple Watch temperature sensors.
But Appleâs concerns about its image have reportedly kept it from going all-in, cautiously prodding at actually turning its products into diagnostics tools. Instead, the company has kept its focus on its core market of the âworried well,â who arenât sick but watch for signs that they are.â
Iâm glad you are ok!
Not semantics - because some people think an Apple Watch somehow replaces a doctor or a medical grade ECG
Hi Geoff, it wouldnât have helped. Appleâs ECG cannot detect the ECG changes of a heart attack.
The Apple Watch is good at detecting atrial fibrillation (and perhaps significant tachycardia or bradycardia) and probably not much else. No one thinks that the Apple Watch replaces a 12 lead ECG read by a skilled cardiologist (and not by AI). No one.
On the other hand people probably wear their Apple Watch way more time than they are in medical institutions, so the âthe best camera is the one you have with youâ mantra might be true for this âuse caseâ as well?
At the time, no. But it may have made me aware of issues beforehand.
You drastically underestimate the simplicity (stupidity?) of people if you believe this statement is 100% accurate. And, based on the fact that you added the second, âNo one.â you do. 
If you need proof of what I speak of, just scroll Tik Tok for half a day (like my simple âadult childrenâ). Itâs a sad state out there.
Like no-one believes that Tesla Autopilot can drive your car for youâŚ
Oh!
âYou can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.â
Iâve dealt with a lot of people over the years including some âthat you can fool all of the timeâ. Nothing surprises me.
This was an interesting article, thanks. (I read the Bloomberg article linked by The Verge.)
One thing the article doesnât say is that the sick are finding ways to use unapproved devices to treat real diseases in conjunction with doctors who understand the benefits of this.
Other doctors hate that this is happeningâthis is why, for example, in the diabetes community lists are maintained of physicians who are okay with DIY closed loop pumping. Over time this is putting pressure on staid endo practices to work with more of the available tools. The same will have to happen when we get âfor entertainment purposesâ glucose data from interstitial fluid reflecting light. For EKGs and the relative hypertension trending in 2024, same issue and probably a similar trend over time, especially as young first heart attacks continue to be common.
Iâm optimistic about this trend and donât think Apple will retreat from making it possible.