Stanford researchers develop Apple Watch app for cardiovascular health

Researchers at Stanford University's medicine school have developed an application for the newly released Apple Watch, in what could become the world's largest up-to-date research ever done on cardiovascular diseases.

Apple on Monday unveiled Apple Watch, which also features a software platform called ResearchKit, allowing medical researchers to develop apps for their studies and recruit participants worldwide.

Located in northern California, close to where Apple is headquartered, Stanford University was one of the first to announce the launch of an app on the platform, called MyHeart Counts, to track user's heart rate and find ways to prevent and treat heart diseases.

"There are two major elements to the study," Michael McConnell, professor of cardiovascular medicine and principal investigator for MyHeart Counts, said in a written statement.

"One is collecting data as broadly as possible on physical activity, fitness and cardiovascular risk factors, which provides important feedback to the participants and helpful research data for our study," he said, "The second is studying ways to help people enhance activity and fitness, and decrease their chances of heart disease."

Thanks to Apple Watch and its built-in motion sensors, the data sent to MyHeart will be immediate and reliable, with participants undergoing quarterly reports and physical tasks suggested by researchers. However, researchers claimed that MyHeart's main goal is not just to become another health app.

"MyHeart Counts aims to be the largest study of measured physical activity and cardiovascular health to date," McConnell said.

"We want people to join in this research effort to give them personalized information about their heart health and help provide fundamental new insights into how activity helps your heart, across all ages, genders, cultures and countries," he said.

MyHeart Counts also aims to prevent future heart failures by modifying participants' behaviors and finding out which ways actually work.

"The future needs a much more ongoing engagement with people's health. We need to understand how to reach out to modify behavior long before we end up having to see someone for a heart attack or stroke," McConnell said.

Apps like Stanford's do raise concerns that personal data may be at risk of being misused or hacked. Apple assured its customers on Monday that none of the information on ResearchKit will be sold to or used by third parties and since it is an open source software, it will be easy to detect bugs.

Other universities and research centers have also enrolled into Apple's health framework. Weill Cornell Medical College, Mount Sinai and Life Map have created an app to alert people with asthma to avoid areas that could trigger an episode, while another app helps people with Parkinson's disease monitor their symptoms. Endi