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Apple is building up a nice portfolio of life-saving features. Currently we have fall detection, a-fib detection, crash detection, satellite communication. Thes

Apple is building up a nice portfolio of life-saving features. Currently we have fall detection, a-fib detection, crash detection, satellite communication. These are all solid value-adds and differentiators from the competition. I'm not sure if they amount to a strong selling point for _everyone_ yet, but I'm sure that's where Apple is headed. I am extremely bullish on Apple's ability to measure health signals in the next 5-10 years, that when fed to AI, will be able to detect health issues long in advance. This may take more sensors, more research, more AI development, but we're definitely headed there. At some point iPhone and Apple Watch will probably be marketed as the devices you need if you don't wish to die early.

MBCook 4y ago
TBF Google had crash detection first, by a few years. But I agree. If they can add a cheap part (better accelerometer) or re-use an existing one (pulse detection for a-fib) and provide really great possible benefits for some people? Sounds great.
blablabla123 4y ago
Yeah I was planning to buy no more Apple products but they do something really right with the Watch and the iPhone. If you've ever been in a situation where you need help it turns out it's on the practical side not so easy
tyingq 4y ago
>At some point iPhone and Apple Watch will probably be marketed as the devices you need if you don't wish to die early. Or you'll have to turn over your data to get the reasonable health insurance rates and not fall in the risky rate bucket.
- yurishimo 4y ago
  God forbid the US become a civilized nation and offer a real competitive national healthcare options. I live in one of the more expensive European nations when it comes to healthcare. €100~/mo with a €400~ deductible per year. Worst case scenario, I spend €1600/yr on healthcare.
  - tyingq 4y ago
    Yep. If your employer isn't subsidizing it for you, €1600/month (not a year) for a good employee+family plan would be a bargain in the US. And the deductible would still be thousands, not hundreds.
  - googlryas 4y ago
    How much do you pay when you factor in the taxes you also pay into the system? If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs. Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compared to the average of other rich nations. Also, a final note, but even if you have cheap out of pocket expenses, you aren't getting good value for your money if you don't visit a doctor for almost a decade. (Yes, I did e-stalk you for 60s to try to see what country to figure out average tax burden for healthvare, and ran across that fact on your intermittent fasting post)
    - paranoidrobot 4y ago
      In general, the US pays more, and has less effective healthcare than countries with universal/single-payer systems[1][2][3]. There's plenty of reasons for that. [1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effective-the-us-healthcare-system-explained/ https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv... [2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-care-could-have-saved-more-than-330-000-u-s-lives-during-covid/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-... [3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
      - googlryas 4y ago
        I agree, but that doesn't mean OPs overall burden is capped at 1600 eur/year
GaryNumanVevo 4y ago
The Apple watch has literally saved 3 of my older relative's lives already. It's amazing technology!
FireBeyond 4y ago
> a-fib detection As a paramedic, not a physician, atrial fibrillation is not a life threatening event. Many people happily live with it for decades, unmedicated. It is more problematic if you are diabetic or hypertensive, but still not an acute medical event.
- robbiep 4y ago
  As a doctor, the proliferation of apple (and other) watch ECGs has done nothing positive but lead to a massive proliferation of severe health anxiety. Go take a look at /r/askdocs for anyone curious - dozens of apple and Samsung ECG questions, people sure they’re about to die. They have nothing. I remain entirely unconvinced that putting ‘more’ health information at increased temporal frequency to consumers leads to any health benefit, and instead causes significant health anxiety and drain on health resources with false and misleading presentations for bad signals.
  - dagmx 4y ago
    How do you reconcile your views on “nothing positive” when there are multiple reported accounts of it leading to early diagnosis events for serious issues?
    - tsimionescu 4y ago
      It can be easily reconciled if there are far more instances of false positives than true positives. Remember that a 99% accuracy for a condition that 0.1% of the population has still means 10 false positives for each 1 early diagnosis. I don't what the numbers are for the conditions that the Apple Watch can detect, just discussing the general principle. Whether it's more useful or more harmful depends crucially on the real numbers.
      - dagmx 4y ago
        Their post said “nothing positive”. That’s different than “not a net positive”.

MBCook 4y ago

TBF Google had crash detection first, by a few years. But I agree. If they can add a cheap part (better accelerometer) or re-use an existing one (pulse detection for a-fib) and provide really great possible benefits for some people? Sounds great.

blablabla123 4y ago

Yeah I was planning to buy no more Apple products but they do something really right with the Watch and the iPhone. If you've ever been in a situation where you need help it turns out it's on the practical side not so easy

tyingq 4y ago

>At some point iPhone and Apple Watch will probably be marketed as the devices you need if you don't wish to die early. Or you'll have to turn over your data to get the reasonable health insurance rates and not fall in the risky rate bucket.

yurishimo 4y ago
God forbid the US become a civilized nation and offer a real competitive national healthcare options. I live in one of the more expensive European nations when it comes to healthcare. €100~/mo with a €400~ deductible per year. Worst case scenario, I spend €1600/yr on healthcare.
- tyingq 4y ago
  Yep. If your employer isn't subsidizing it for you, €1600/month (not a year) for a good employee+family plan would be a bargain in the US. And the deductible would still be thousands, not hundreds.
- googlryas 4y ago
  How much do you pay when you factor in the taxes you also pay into the system? If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs. Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compared to the average of other rich nations. Also, a final note, but even if you have cheap out of pocket expenses, you aren't getting good value for your money if you don't visit a doctor for almost a decade. (Yes, I did e-stalk you for 60s to try to see what country to figure out average tax burden for healthvare, and ran across that fact on your intermittent fasting post)
  - paranoidrobot 4y ago
    In general, the US pays more, and has less effective healthcare than countries with universal/single-payer systems[1][2][3]. There's plenty of reasons for that. [1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effective-the-us-healthcare-system-explained/ https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv... [2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-care-could-have-saved-more-than-330-000-u-s-lives-during-covid/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-... [3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/jan/us-health-care-global-perspective-2019 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
    - googlryas 4y ago
      I agree, but that doesn't mean OPs overall burden is capped at 1600 eur/year

GaryNumanVevo 4y ago

The Apple watch has literally saved 3 of my older relative's lives already. It's amazing technology!

FireBeyond 4y ago

> a-fib detection As a paramedic, not a physician, atrial fibrillation is not a life threatening event. Many people happily live with it for decades, unmedicated. It is more problematic if you are diabetic or hypertensive, but still not an acute medical event.

robbiep 4y ago
As a doctor, the proliferation of apple (and other) watch ECGs has done nothing positive but lead to a massive proliferation of severe health anxiety. Go take a look at /r/askdocs for anyone curious - dozens of apple and Samsung ECG questions, people sure they’re about to die. They have nothing. I remain entirely unconvinced that putting ‘more’ health information at increased temporal frequency to consumers leads to any health benefit, and instead causes significant health anxiety and drain on health resources with false and misleading presentations for bad signals.
- dagmx 4y ago
  How do you reconcile your views on “nothing positive” when there are multiple reported accounts of it leading to early diagnosis events for serious issues?
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    It can be easily reconciled if there are far more instances of false positives than true positives. Remember that a 99% accuracy for a condition that 0.1% of the population has still means 10 false positives for each 1 early diagnosis. I don't what the numbers are for the conditions that the Apple Watch can detect, just discussing the general principle. Whether it's more useful or more harmful depends crucially on the real numbers.
    - dagmx 4y ago
      Their post said “nothing positive”. That’s different than “not a net positive”.