Apple Watch and Airpods: from heart to hearing, a bridge between patient and doctor

The issue is intertwined with a structural criticality of the healthcare system. "Today we have a huge problem, which is there for all to see: waiting lists. We can no longer get everyone to an outpatient clinic or hospital. And not everything, fortunately, requires an in-patient visit'. In this scenario, he adds, 'the possibility of self-checking certain parameters at home, and then sharing them with the doctor, can be an enormous help. In Italia we are still behind, but the potential is very high'.

Carugo highlighted some figures from the European Society of Cardiology: 'Italia is among the last countries in Europe for physical activity and among the first for tobacco consumption. Added to this is a huge problem of cardiovascular prevention, with still very marked differences between North and South. Cardio and cerebrovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death and disability in our country. Prevention works when you put people in a position to really understand what they are doing and what consequences their daily habits have'.

A recent example concerns a 65-year-old patient: 'She had been complaining of palpitations for months. She was advised to use a watch capable of recording the ECG: during one episode she took the trace, which showed an arrhythmia that was later confirmed in the emergency room, where a pacemaker was implanted. Without this possibility, she would probably have faced repeated visits to the emergency room or Holter monitoring, which are not always able to intercept sporadic events,' Carugo adds.

The professor concludes: 'Today, when a device signals atrial fibrillation, the probability that it is real is very high. And clinical confidence in this data has also grown among colleagues'. And: 'Integration with primary care medicine is the real cultural leap'

Frank Lin, from Apple's Clinical Team, focused on audio: "We compared the Apple Hearing Test with traditional audiometry, what we consider the 'gold standard', performed with a silent booth audiometer. The results were very accurate, basically comparable'.

"When measuring hearing, one thinks in decibels. A variation of plus or minus five decibels is considered normal: if you do a test today and repeat it tomorrow, it is easy to fall within that threshold. In the comparison between our test and standard audiometry we found an average difference of about 1.8 decibels, so well within the normal variability'.

The approach, he emphasises, is multi-layered: 'There is first of all protection, for example with the noise meter on the Apple Watch, which informs about sound exposure, or with the AirPods Pro, which automatically protect against excessively loud sounds when worn. Then there is awareness: the hearing test lets people know their hearing status. Finally, for those who already have a loss, we offer support tools such as the hearing aid function and Conversation Boost mode'.

A central aspect is the dual reading of the data. "For the user, we present the results in a simple and straightforward way. But if you select 'export PDF', the test is shown as a complete audiogram, in the format a clinician would expect. We therefore design the same information in two different ways: one designed for the user and one for the clinician'. He concludes: 'The PDF may seem an outdated tool, but it is still widely used in clinical practice'.