Dr. Sumbul Desai spoke at BioAsia 2023 on Apple’s goals for health prevention, research into women’s health data, and keeping information safe.
Apple’s vice president of health continues the occasional talk promoting the company in an interview at the BioAsia 2023 conference in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. biz buzz newsshe participated in a “fireside chat” with Sangita Reddy, co-managing director of Apollo Hospital, over the weekend of February 24-26, 2023.
Dr. Desai primarily talked about Apple’s approach to all health features, regardless of device, and how it differs from other companies.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is, ‘We need to access all of our data and learn from it,'” she said. “You don’t actually have access to that data. It’s on your local device. You don’t see the data on the cloud. You don’t learn on the cloud.”
“When we create features like heart rate notifications, gait stability, etc., we want users to control their data and not allow Apple access to that data,” she continued.
Apple compiles data in studies Apple Watch users agree to participate in, such as walking stability studies. Dr. Desai says this will power the early stages of work on Apple’s health features.
“More than 200,000 [200,000] A sample of data from consenting participants was investigated to study changes in mobility patterns to classify movements. are focused on.”
“The way I think about it is to look at our research very early on,” she continued, “there’s a lot more science to discover.”
researching women’s health
Dr. Desai wouldn’t comment on how it’s surprisingly common for general health research to focus only on men, but said Apple could use the Apple Watch to better study women. I was.
“Now when you wear a watch, we have access to biometrics,” she said. “So how does that inform women about their health? ”
“We are updating the data and understanding the science of women’s health,” continued Dr. Desai. “Through our data, we know that many women experience their PCOS. [polycystic ovary syndrome] This is often underdiagnosed. ”
Apple’s PCOS research is part of the Apple Women’s Health Study, launched in 2019.
“We also found that a proportion of women with PCOS were receiving regular heart rate notifications,” said Dr. Desai. “We’re thrilled to do it in a medical community-validated way.”
