I have had a couple instances of ventricular fibrillation. I have an implant which brings me back to life when that happens; I would be dead without it. However, I do go unconscious for a few seconds until I get shocked back to life.<p>Although my case is infrequent enough that it is not thought of as a risk by the medical community, for peace of mind what I would really like to have is a link between a watch of some sort and a car capable of self driving. Should I be driving when I go unconscious, all the car would need to do is automatically kick in autopilot mode while gradually slowing down, until a heart rhythm is detected again.<p>The risk is small, if you consider the percentage of time I'm behind the wheel, but it would be good for peace of mind. It would also be helpful for others who do not <i>yet</i> know they have a heart condition, or those who are having a stroke or epileptic attack while at the wheel. There are others with worse conditions than mine who are basically advised not to drive, so it would help them as well.<p>If falling asleep can be detected by any biological signals, that would also be a useful autopilot trigger while waking the driver up, for the general population.<p>Currently most cars require manually activating the autopilot mode; what I'm proposing is a vital sign monitor to automatically <i>begin</i> self-driving if the human is incapacitated.<p>If the human doesn't wake up within a half a minute or so, the car could also self-drive itself to a hospital. I think we're far enough with self-driving tech that that saved life would far outweigh the risks of the self-driving system having any issues en route.
If you put a popular device, with a medical detection tool into the wider population, it would be logical that the device would pick up on patients who would other not notice the symptoms (at least initially, if any).<p>So then the question becomes what other daily device(s) could be made to do automatic health checks of certain specific indicators, which would give an early indication to the possible condition, thus improving life expectancy and quality of life, while lowering associated medical costs.<p>i.e. toothbrushes that detect cavities, sunglasses that check your pupils for certain symptoms, hats that monitor your EEG. These are obviously extreme examples, but you get the idea...
from the article: "Did my Apple Watch save my life? I think in my case, that’s a bit of an overstatement."<p>Thanks to an Apple Watch w/ ECG, I now have a cardiologist, too. My A-fib burden is only 4% and at my age without diabetes my increased stroke risk is minimal, so my Dr. basically asked why I was bothering to wear this thing if it was just worrying me unnecessarily.<p>I mostly agree. It <i>is</i> nice to finally know what's going on because I've been having irregular heartbeat when exercising for over 5 years & a stress test (ECG on a treadmill) didn't show anything. Now I've had 2 weeks of monitoring with an iRhythm Zio & an echocardiogram so I know I'm reasonably safe to continue exercising.<p>Is it worth the $$$ insurance paid for all of it? I'm really not sure about that. I kind of wish the Dr. had told me "lose some weight or you'll drop dead" because I would have listened. I'm also not sure what I would have done if I hadn't been able to figure out what was happening. Probably just continue to keep my rate under 150 as it's a high rate that usually correlates with irregular beats.
It is odd to me how he keeps describing his $500/month insurance as being useless: he is generally in excellent health and his yearly expenditures are low enough that he is always paying down the deductible.<p>Does he feel car insurance and home insurance are useless since he didn't total his car last year and his house didn't burn down?<p>He knows this (as he mentions it obliquely) that he could lower his deductible but his costs would go up. Is he complaining that he is on the wrong part of that tradeoff curve? Or does he expect low-cost insurance with a low deductible that covers all of his routine medical expenses?
While this is great for Afib detection it's its very rare CDC says 2.7-6 Million people[1]. Still great for those people! I still think we need to do much better. High BP and hypertension is way more important to measure since they can be diagnostic in a larger percentage.<p>My dad is a triple bypass heart patient. ECG and stress tests did diddly squat to detect it, until it was too late and it was diagnosed by a CT Angiogram. I now get CT Angiogram with contrasts every few years just to be safe because of family history.<p>[1]<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_atrial_fibrillation.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_atr...</a>
This is the 2nd or 3rd story I've heard like this about the Apple Watch's new ECG feature. I wasn't interested in smartwatches before, but now I am considering getting an Apple Watch, even if it's just for my parents.
A friend of mine in his early twenties drowned a few months back due to a cardiac event related to atrial fibrillation. He was otherwise in phenomenal shape and living life to the fullest.
> It’s also worth noting at this point in the story that Atrial Fibrillation is extremely rare in men my age. Less than two percent of people in my demographic have it. Go figure. When I do something, I go big I guess.<p>This is looking at it backwards. How many serious health problems have similar rates of affliction? If there are 50 different potential health problems then he has a 2 in 3 chance of having at least <i>one</i> of those.
> <i>"I continue to pay for my insurance because thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I have to. It’s the law. And I’m okay with that. Because I know paying into the system helps others who make less money than me have access to care.</i>"<p>One had better be okay with it, because if you don't consent, they'll take the money from you by force.
I saw some variation of this story around the time it came out:<p><i>Grandfather discovers heart condition thanks to children’s museum exhibit</i><p><a href="https://kdvr.com/2019/02/21/grandfather-discovers-heart-condition-thanks-to-childrens-museum-exhibit/" rel="nofollow">https://kdvr.com/2019/02/21/grandfather-discovers-heart-cond...</a><p>I don't think I submitted it to HN. I felt it would be viewed as fluff.<p>But we have incredible and constantly increasing opportunities to casually check biometrics that previously required serious medical exams and lab work, etc. It's absolutely changing things.
Here in Italy in order to subscribe to a gym you need to bring your ECG (not mandatory by law but a number of gyms will ask for it), and every year you need to make a new one, so I would say that the percentage of "active" population that is not regularly checked is small. How is this matter in the rest of the world?
I love the matter-of-factness of this article. Not only is it a great example of how technology can have unexpected positive outcomes for users, the author also manages to sneak in some extremely relaxed observations about the ACA and having to subsidise healthcare of others. I am impressed!
> "Since I don’t have a “job job,” I pay roughly $500 a month for “health insurance” out of my own pocket"<p>Tangential question, related to the above:
I am currently paying for COBRA, and the amount paid is outragerous. Anyone has suggestions for a cheaper, good enough alternative?
> (a direct result of my resting heart rate being in the 113-120 bpm range)<p>Yeah that should have been a red flag in itself<p>Also remember that while it will give "true positive" results, there will be a lot of borderline or non-worrying alarms that will need to be checked.
One thing to note: portable ECGs are <$100 on amazon. Not as feature rich as the apple watch, sure, but the watch only measures from one location, normally you want to measure from a few, usually at least 3: leg, arm, and chest.
I also have a cardiologist.<p>It takes the form of a combination of very high output training (BJJ) coupled with regular, sustained aerobic training at a high percentage of my aerobic capacity (running and plyometrics).<p>It sounds like I'm being flip, or worse, self-satisfied - but I am quite serious.<p>If my heart started behaving strangely, or weakened in some way, <i>I would notice immediately</i>. It would be quite marked. Things that I partake in, and think about, <i>and feel</i>, would suddenly be off.<p>Or to put it more technically, I am running my body at a much lower set of tolerances where defects are immediately identifiable.[1]<p>I have a suspicion that <i>my cardiologist</i> is actually better than the apple one, since I could <i>feel</i> some differences that might not yet manifest themselves in some kind of measurable heart output.<p>The downside to all of this, in the faraway future (I am currently 42 years old) is that "heart trouble" might manifest itself <i>during exercise</i> in a sudden and acute fashion that leaves me dead. On the other hand, the exercise makes that, statistically, less likely.<p>I also enjoy it very much, so there's that.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.keyence.com/ss/products/measure/measurement_library/basic/tolerance/" rel="nofollow">https://www.keyence.com/ss/products/measure/measurement_libr...</a>
If the Apple Watch can be credited for new detections, can we also blame it for non-detections?<p>Just asking... Because if the value prop is that they can detect, then they should have some accountability for non-detected positives, no?
IDK about this. I find it kinda creepy to have my heart beat monitored & sent to a server far away and not under my control. I mean, ad companies already have so much data about me, do they also need to know how my heartbeat reacts to an ad? Does my insurer need to know it? I wonder whether it can detect sex and be used to e.g. track infidelity.<p>On the other hand, of course it's great to save lives and help you detect possibly harmful conditions. The thing that makes me uneasy is not the idea of a heart tracker watch per se, but the possibility that maybe one day the facebook app wants access or chrome because of WebHeartBeat API or whatever. This trend of constantly increasing amounts of data sources sent to the cloud is sick.