The Apple Watch is helping some cancer patients with their treatments.
In a recent article in Fox Business,
the site spoke about a new treatment plan for cancer patients in
Camden, New Jersey that uses the Apple Watch as a tool. The nine month
program was implemented with 30 patients at the MD Anderson Cancer
Center with the hope of capturing every move they make during cancer
treatment.
“The app allows us to stay in touch with our patients
while they’re in care at home and in the hospital by measuring their
physical condition through the watch and their mental condition through a
series of questions that we ask so we can get a more holistic view of
their health,” Mark Anthony, CEO of Polaris Health, told FOXBusiness.
So far, the patients seem really interested in the treatment, and
are reportedly enjoying using the wearable. Cori McMahon, Director of
Behavioral Medicine at MD Anderson told FOX that patients were using the
Apple Watch to track both their activity level and their mood, the Apple Watch
also allows those patients to see the effect different treatments have
on their body, and how certain treatments might affect their mind and
body.
The Apple Watch is particularly useful when it comes to monitoring patient’s moods.
McMahon says that since doctors are able to track a patient’s mood,
they can tell when a patient is going through a few rough days. If their
mood drops for several days in a row, doctors can ask the patient via
the Watch if they would like to speak to someone. If they would, they
can push a button the Apple Watch and be instantly connected to someone
on the medical team.
It’s super-fast and responsive medical care
that previously wasn’t available. Previously doctors might have not even
been aware a patient was going through a rough time, and would have had
to count on that patient to not only recognize the issue, but reach out
on their own for help.
That’s something many patients simply wouldn’t do.
There’s
also an app that patients can use to connect with each other. Within
the app’s forum-like structure, patients can talk to others going
through similar treatments about the disease, the treatment process, and
obstacles they’ve encountered along the way.
Patients can then offer support to each other.
That means that even if a patient can’t get out of bed, they have the
opportunity to connect with others and get the support that they need.
The Apple Watch is already being implemented in a number of medical situations.
Another app called Epi Watch,
for example, offers a way for epilepsy patients to track how the
disease effects them in the hopes of potentially improving their
treatments and allowing doctors to gain a better understanding of the
disease.
The study, which is being conducted by the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, has patients take daily surveys and make
journal entires about their disease, and tries to get them to document
when they have seizures and what happens to their body prior to one come
on. Thanks to the Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor, accelerometer, and
gyroscope, researchers will be able to track changes in heart rate as
well as body movement in patients, ultimately gaining a better
understanding of the disease.
For right now, the app is simply
collecting data rather than predicting when a seizure might take place.
In the future, however, researchers hope to be able to take that data
and turn it into a way for doctors to be able to predict when a seizure
might come in the future.
"We foresee the app giving some parents
the confidence to allow their children to play on their own," Krauss
says. "For some adults, using it might allow them, for the first time,
to live safely alone.”
By Emily Price
Apple Watch Expert
