“We plan to use these data acquired before the operation to predict possible pre or postoperative complications and act on them preventively,” he said Patrick Schoettker Chief of Anesthesiology of Chuv University Hospital, In Lausana, Switzerland. The professional, in an interview with the BBC, highlighted the use of smartwatch devices to detect underlying weaknesses in the physiology of patients who must be surgically intervened.
Currently, Tech companies Masimo, Apple, Samsung, Withings, Fitbit and Polar They have developed smartwatchs capable of registering an extraordinary amount of data, which allows real -time monitoring of measurements such as sleep quality, blood pressure, heart rate variation and blood oxygen saturation levels.
For Schoettker, rapid blood loss can cause shock in the patient, which causes dangerous falls of blood flow in the body. They can also develop serious lung problems after many hours of deep sedation. For this reason, the Swiss medical team is carrying out an essay that involves placing the patient a smart watch known as Masimo W1 several weeks before your preoperative consultation. The data that collects are then used to form an evaluation of their health status.
In the case of the W1 model, of the American brand Masimo, continuous readings of the heart and respiratory rate, the oxygen in the blood and even the hydration levels are provided, all with a medical grade accuracy. “More and more patients are willing to use their smart watches to obtain some data and then bring us the results,” he said Gosia Wamilspecialist in cardiology of the May Clinic From London to the British environment and added: “And then we can investigate more thoroughly and confirm those anomalies.”
In a study it was discovered that electrocardiogram measurements (ECG) acquired with smart watches could reliably identify additional heart beats in people between 50 and 70 who, otherwise, were healthy. For medicine professionals, this can be a warning signal of a much more serious condition, atrial fibrillation, in which the heart begins to beating irregularly or accelerating without control without prior notice.
In another investigation, it was found that AI algorithms can use Apple Watch ECG readings to identify people with a low ejection fraction with 88 % precision. The amount of blood that pumps the heart every time it beats can be a key warning sign of heart failure. “Very often, patients may not have symptoms during those 24 hours. But with smart watches, provided that the patient experiences symptoms, he can press a button on his watch, get an ECG and show it to us, ”Wamil acknowledged.
“We hope that in the future, these data can be used to detect early signs that alert the patient and the doctor about a future risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes,” said the specialist and concluded: “In the Cardiology clinics, we see patients who complain about palpitations, and we used to have those tapes that we could hit them in the chest and record their ECG for 24 hours.”
In July 2023, researchers from the Cardiff University, In Wales, they published a study with data from more than 100,000 people who were given an intelligent clock to take it for a week. The results showed that it was possible to identify people with signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before their clinical diagnosis. This was done by detecting subtle anomalies in their marching patterns, measured by watch movement sensors.
The executive director of MasimoJoe Kiani, He advanced new medical implementations of his smartwatch devices. “We have a measure of respiratory effort,” said the CEO and said: “We can know when you have breathing difficulties because the respiratory rate increases, heart rate increases … all to try to compensate for the lack of oxygen you are receiving. What is crazy is that during the last 50 or 60 years, everything we have had at home has been a thermometer to help you decide what to do. Now we are going to have this set of information that can help people not have to go to emergencies and, even so, receive adequate attention. ”
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