Apple Watch delivers new sleep apnea notifications, and AirPods Pro 2 provide the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience including a clinical-grade, over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature
On September 9, 2024, Apple announced a series of innovative health features designed to address conditions affecting billions of people worldwide. These new innovations, delivered through the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2, expand Apple’s efforts to enhance sleep and hearing health.
Apple Watch’s Sleep Apnea Notifications
Apple introduced sleep apnea notifications, powered by a new “Breathing Disturbances” metric in the Apple Watch. This feature uses the watch’s accelerometer to detect disruptions in respiratory patterns during sleep, offering users valuable insights into potential sleep apnea. By analyzing this data over 30 days, the Apple Watch can notify users of signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea, urging them to consult with healthcare providers for further diagnosis and treatment. With over 1 billion people affected by sleep apnea globally, this development could help bridge the gap for those who remain undiagnosed.
“At Apple, we believe that technology can help you live a healthier life, and we’re excited to enable incredible new health capabilities for serious conditions that affect billions of people around the world, while continuing to keep user data private,” said Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health. “With Apple Watch, we continue to offer our users the ability to uncover important health conditions with new sleep apnea notifications. And on AirPods Pro, powerful features put users’ hearing health front and center, bringing new ways to help test for and receive assistance for hearing loss.”
The sleep apnea notification feature, pending FDA clearance, will be available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models in over 150 regions.
“Empowering consumers everywhere to have the ability to reliably identify the presence of abnormal breathing patterns during sleep can help uncover a woefully underdiagnosed and serious medical condition such as sleep apnea,” said Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D., University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neurosciences’s professor and director in Tucson, Arizona. “This is a major step forward in improving public health.”
AirPods Pro 2: The World’s First All-in-One Hearing Health Experience
According to the Apple Hearing Study — a longitudinal, virtual public research study conducted in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the World Health Organization — one in three people are regularly exposed to loud environmental noise levels that can impact their hearing. That can include common scenarios like taking the subway while commuting, mowing the lawn at home, attending a sporting event, and many more.
Apple also transformed the AirPods Pro 2 into a complete hearing health device with features like active hearing protection, a clinical-grade hearing test, and an over-the-counter hearing aid option. With approximately 1.5 billion people living with hearing loss globally, these innovations aim to provide accessible and affordable solutions for hearing impairment.
- Prevention: AirPods Pro 2’s active hearing protection minimizes exposure to damaging environmental noise, adjusting in real-time to protect users while preserving sound quality.
- Awareness: The new Hearing Test feature enables users to assess their hearing health through a five-minute test conducted with their AirPods and an iPhone or iPad. Results can be securely stored and shared with healthcare providers.
- Assistance: The over-the-counter hearing aid feature, built into AirPods Pro 2, personalizes sound adjustments for those with mild to moderate hearing loss, making hearing aids more accessible without a professional setup.
These features, pending regulatory approval, are set to roll out in fall 2024 across 100 countries.
“Hearing health is a cornerstone of overall wellbeing. Protecting and preserving our hearing enhances our quality of life both in the short-term and long-term,” said Rick Neitzel, University of Michigan School of Public Health’s professor of Environmental Health Sciences and principal investigator of the Apple Hearing Study. “I’m thrilled Apple is introducing important tools to support people’s hearing health. These tools will help people protect their ears from noise pollution, be aware of changes in their hearing over time, and have important conversations with their healthcare providers when they need additional support.”
Apple continues to enhance its health offerings with privacy as a core principle. All health data stored in the Health app is encrypted, ensuring users’ sensitive information remains secure.
With these innovative features, Apple reinforces its commitment to empowering users to monitor and improve their health through technology while keeping data privacy at the forefront.
Resource: Apple.com
