How accurate is apple watch blood oxygen

To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question. How accurate is the blood oxygen on your watch.

A recent study showed the Apple Watch's blood oxygen sensor is as reliable as a medical grade device. The researchers tested the Apple Watch Series 6 versus a medical-grade pulse oximeter sensor with a standard protocol: get a group of healthy volunteers, have them breathe air with a lower concentration of oxygen, and then compare measured SpO2. However, the error bounds for even FDA-cleared oximeters are wider than you might expect. The FDA requires that pulse oximeters are tested compared to arterial blood gas saturation an invasive test that is the gold-standard for oxygenation measurement. As of July , the FDA is actively revising their protocols based on this information. Not necessarily — since individual blood oxygen readings can be widely variable, it is best to look at the overall trend.

How accurate is apple watch blood oxygen

A new validation study published this month puts the blood oxygen feature of the Apple Watch to the test. As spotted by MyHealthyApple , the study was published this month in the Digital Health open access journal. For the study, researchers recruited 24 healthy participants. Each person wore an Apple Watch Series 6 on their left wrist and a pulse oximeter sensor on their left middle finger the Masimo Radical The participants breathed via a breathing circuit with a three-way non-rebreathing valve in three phases. First, in the 2-minute initial stabilization phase, the participants inhaled the ambient air. In the final stabilization phase, the participants inhaled the ambient air again until SpO 2 returned to normal values. Measurements of SpO 2 were taken from the smartwatch and the pulse oximeter simultaneously in s intervals. The bias in SpO 2 between the smartwatch and the oximeter was 0. Apple first added blood oxygen measurement support to the Apple Watch Series 6. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:.

Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts. The limitations and biases of the FST scale as well as the lack of inclusion of participants from other races should be acknowledged and discussed by the authors. Each dot represents a measurement with an Apple Watch.

Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Blood oxygen saturation SpO2 is an important measurement for monitoring patients with acute and chronic conditions that are associated with low blood oxygen levels. While smartwatches may provide a new method for continuous and unobtrusive SpO2 monitoring, it is necessary to understand their accuracy and limitations to ensure that they are used in a fit-for-purpose manner. The mean absolute error MAE , mean directional error MDE and root mean squared error RMSE were used to evaluate the accuracy of the smartwatches as compared to a clinical grade pulse oximeter.

Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. The purpose of this review is to summarize the research on the accuracy of oxygen saturation spO 2 measurements using the Apple Watch Apple Inc. The Medline and Google Scholar databases were searched for papers evaluating the spO 2 measurements of the Apple Watch vs. Only one study had patient-level data uploaded to a public repository. The Apple Watch Series 6 does not show a strong systematic bias compared to conventional, medical-grade pulse oximeters. However, outliers do occur and should not cause concern in otherwise healthy individuals. The impact of race on measurement accuracy should be investigated. Wearables are blurring the lines between lifestyle devices and medical products. In the case of the Apple Watch Apple Inc.

How accurate is apple watch blood oxygen

Apple with the Apple Watch Series 6 introduced a new feature for monitoring blood oxygen level, using the LEDs at the back of the Apple Watch to determine the amount of oxygen in the blood. A low blood oxygen level can be indicative of a serious health issue that needs immediate attention. Taking a blood oxygen reading is rather straightforward, but there are automatic measurement settings to be aware of as well as necessary tips for getting an accurate measurement, all of which can be found in the guide below.

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Blood oxygen tracking—more accurately described as blood oxygen saturation—is a measurement of how much oxygen your lungs are infusing your blood with. If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. By Larell Scardelli. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. List of Partners vendors. The heart rate was noted during the first measurement with a conventional pulse oximeter. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of AstraZeneca or the National Institutes of Health. Of the 49 participants, 16 were receiving oxygen via a nasal cannula, with a median of three liters per minute, and one was receiving oxygen via a non-rebreather mask at 15 liters per minute. For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Results from a large study [ 17 ] that includes white patients and black patients indicated that the incidence of hypoxemia can be 3 times higher among patients self-reported as Black vs White because the oxygen saturation readings of black patients tend to be overestimated at a low SpO2 range. XLSX Click here for additional data file.

Very, Very Accurate.

Major Comments: Were these inpatients or outpatients or just patients recruited to a lab? Corresponding author. For the spO 2 measurement, patients were instructed to remain still for 15 seconds while the watch was placed on their wrists. Download references. We ask that a manuscript source file is provided at Revision. There is existing discussion surrounding pulse oximetry inaccuracies and increased smartwatch inaccuracies and data missingness under certain conditions [ 14 — 19 ]. Fitzgerald RK, Johnson A. A third author DRZ acted as a referee in case of a potential disagreement between the two authors responsible for screening. Apple Watch then uses an advanced custom algorithm built into the Blood Oxygen app, which is designed to measure blood oxygen between 70 percent and percent. Published online Feb Two of the remaining publications mentioned the data being available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request [ 2 , 17 ], while the others did not mention data availability [ 14 , 15 ]. Measure content performance. Assessment of non-invasive measurements of oxygen saturation and heart rate with an Apple smartwatch: comparison with a standard pulse oximeter. As of July , the FDA is actively revising their protocols based on this information.