I know for a fact that the Apple Watch is a pain in the backside for many doctors because so many patients call or visit because of some spurious that their Apple Watch has shown them. Often these are not a sign of a serious problem, but humans are prone to staying on the very safe side.

For a number of weeks now I have had symptoms of dizziness, overt tiredness and more recently palpitations and other worrying signs. At first my GP said it was a balance issue and took a simple blood test; a couple of borderline numbers, but otherwise OK.

The symptoms got worse and so he ran an ECG. He said that I had Atrial fibrillation and that a course of blood thinners would be in order. He didn’t, however, want to give them straight away and he asked me to call my work GP and get a referral for private care as the NHS is slow at the moment (his words not mine).

After speaking to a relative who works in this specific area and who said ‘that’s not AF!’ I called the private GP the next day. She took down my symptoms and told me to go to A&E immediately.

I was seen within 10 minutes of arriving and had an initial ECG and bloods taken. A further 2 ECGs, chest x-ray, brain scan, neurological tests and discussions with consultants and they have asked for more tests to be taken; more intrusive scans and a monitor to wear.

An ectopic heartbeat was mentioned and they exclaimed that it was luck that a 10 second ECG scan would pick one up. I explained that one had been picked up on every ECG so far and that my Apple Watch also seems to see this-

You won’t get a warning, but it is plain to see. The Apple Watch is also very good at tracking general heart rate and other factors that could be useful.

The consultant also asked that I ask my GP (the useless one) to book an investigation for potential Sleep Apnea.

Apple announced this feature a mere few days ago and here is what my Apple Watch is showing-

I genuinely think Apple has some decent monitoring happening here and that the daily results could be much more useful than doctors give them credit for.

I still don’t know what is wrong and the symptoms are getting worse, but I expect some proper answers within 2 weeks after further tests. I suspect that in years to come none of that will be necessary and that whatever we are wearing will simply pop up a notification and say something like ‘You have (an ailment). See a health professional.’

Categories: Apple, Fitness, Health, Smartwatches

Tags: Fitness, Health, smartwatch