When Apple launched ResearchKit a huge amount of doors were opened to medical research. The possibility of using the iPhone and Apple Watch to gather information about different diseases would provide unthinkable a few years ago the medical research. And the first results are not doing wait with a growing number of studies that are carried out by major medical institutions around the world. One that has already completed its first phase will allow better understanding the triggers of seizures, the main symptom of epilepsy, thanks to an application specially designed for Apple Watch.
The application, called EpiWatch and developed by the Johns Hopkins University, includes a complication for the Apple Watch that by touching it makes the clock to collect for ten minutes the heart rate and movements of the person them leading positions. Taking into account that some people have some symptoms before suffering a seizure, such as tingling in some parts of the body, weakness of any part of the body or start to notice strange smells, when they noticed these symptoms called “aura” and which precede the convulsion played this complication and clock it is responsible for collecting information during the crisis. One last time, the patient filled out a form with data as presented aura, the triggering event, loss of consciousness, etc.
A total of 598 people participated in this study, a total of 1,485 seizures recorded during the 10 months that has lasted for the study. Some of the extracted data show how stress was the most frequent cause that caused the seizure, with 37% of the total, while the lack of sleep was the second most common, reaching 18%. The study intends to learn more about the triggers of seizures so to use devices as the Apple Watch to predict crises and we will be able to offer more freedom to people suffering from this disease, even get to save lives.