Apple has always been known to be at the forefront of innovation with a multitude of creative ideas and groundbreaking technological advances. We all know and love Apple for their sleek and easy to use electronics. From the iPod to the iPhone to the Mac, Apple has been influencing many of our lives for years. Before recently, that’s where their influence stopped. But, within the past few years Apple started dabbling in the healthcare industry with iPhone’s that can track your steps and allows you to input your menstrual cycle along with various other health related information. And, more recently, Apple Watches that track and monitor your heart rate and activity levels, estimating how many calories you’ve burned, and allows you to keep track of what you’ve eaten to see how many calories you’ve eaten, helping with users diet and weight goals. With these apps and abilities, Apple has been killing it in the health and well-being department, promoting healthy lifestyles and giving the community a convenient and easy way to track those health habits.

Now, Apple has taken their involvement in the healthcare field a step further with the launch of their new Research app. Partnering with major institutions, Apple is now conducting three separate studies. The Apple Heart and Movement Study, the Women’s Health Study, and the Hearing Study are all currently open for enrollment and available for participation from anyone that owns an Apple product where the app can be downloaded. These studies were originally released in November, 2019, but are still open for enrollment. Each of these studies are easy to access and participate in, while also being incredibly important research topics whose results can have a large impact on the future of our understanding of these health topics.

I’m going to briefly go over each study, talking about what they’re asking and looking at, as well as the other companies that are also in their research. For more information on each study you can visit the Apple website or the websites of the various stakeholders for each study, all of which are available in the Resources section below.

The Apple Heart and Movement Study



With Heart Disease currently being the number one cause of death in the United States, this study can have a huge impact on the health of a large population, possibly leading to earlier diagnosis of heart related health conditions. In this study Apple is going to look at each participant’s movements compared to their current and future health status. They’re going to be tracking movement through the users Apple watch, so that is a necessity for participation in this study. Participants will be asked to record their workouts using their watches, while also answering a few survey questions about background, lifestyle and activity level. The purpose of the study is to promote cardiovascular health along with healthy movement in order to understand how heart rate and rhythm and movement can be possible warning signs for various heart conditions. Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the American Heart Association are partnering with Apple for this study.

The Apple Women’s Health Study



Obviously all three of these studies are important and interesting, but honestly, this one is my favorite! Partnering with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Apple is trying to better understand menstrual cycles and how they are related to women’s overall health.



This is a very exciting study because it’s the first large scale, long-term studies of this topic, which has been vastly under studied up until relatively recently. The main health conditions they are focusing on in this study are polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), infertility, osteoporosis and menopausal transition. But, you are not required to have any of these conditions to participate! All you need is an Apple device where you can download the Research app, you must be at least 18 years old and have had at least one period. That’s it, that’s all you need to participate. Each month participants will be asked to answer a short survey through the app asking about the participants menstrual experience. The study is currently open for enrollment and is set to run for about 10 years, but you have the ability to drop out of the study at any time. Apple and their partners hope that this study can lead to a better understanding of a plethora of reproductive health topics.

The Apple Hearing Study



The basis of this study is very interesting and looks at a correlation that is not currently very well studied. Apple, along with the University of Michigan, will be looking at the relationship between stress levels and sound exposure. In this study they’ll be collecting data through headphone usage and the Noise app on the Apple watch to determine sound exposure overtime to determine how those long-term effects can impact stress levels and overall cardiovascular health. They want to use this data in the future to detect if users should modify their listening behaviors and to raise awareness of the benefits of healthy listening behaviors. The data from this study will also be shared with the World Health Organization (WHO) so they can use it to improve their Make Listening Safe initiative.

All three of these studies can have major impacts on the current knowledge and understanding of these topics, so I urge everyone to at least check out the Research app and see if any of these studies pertain to you! Apple does have a Research Privacy policy which promises that all participants data will not be sold, you can leave any study at any time, you control what information and data you share with the study, and that you will be told what your data is being used for. Be a part of something important and have an impact on the future of health science.

Resources

https://www.apple.com/ios/research-app/?&cid=wwa-us-kwgo-watch-slid–&mtid=20925qtb42335&aosid=p238&mnid=sqKC26el5-dc_mtid_20925qtb42335_pcrid_396938191119_pgrid_84097979472_&anonymizeip=set

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/09/apple-announces-three-groundbreaking-health-studies/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/11/apple-launches-three-innovative-studies-today-in-the-new-research-app/

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04196595

https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/apple-heart-and-movement-study

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/applewomenshealthstudy/

https://news.umich.edu/apple-u-m-hearing-study-to-focus-on-sound-exposure-in-daily-life/

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-partners-apple-harvard-university-womens-health-study

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/technology/apple-harvard-health-studies.html