How the Apple Watch Can Collect Patient Data

A project in southern New Jersey is using Apple Watches to better understand the factors influencing treatment outcomes among women with breast cancer.

Nancy Crotti

Polaris Health Directions and MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper will use Apple Watch to collect data on breast cancer patients--but the latest example of an Apple wonder gizmo being put to medical device uses.

Apple Watches will collect data actively and passively from about 30 patients at the southern New Jersey cancer hospital through a Polaris Health (Wayne, PA) behavioral health technology platform called Polestar. 

Data will include treatment side effects, sleep information, physical activity levels, and patient mood and could affect patients' treatment and outcomes, according to a Polaris statement.

The project will track how patients cope with anxiety and depression immediately after diagnosis and after their treatment is complete, according to a report by appleinsider.com. Researchers will combine this information with medical data from the participating patients' electronic health records and health data of other breast cancer patients at Cooper, Polaris said.

Polaris will pay for the Apple Watch Sport 38mm models and underwrite a HealthKit-compatible app, while Cooper will select the patients and consult on product design and usability. After the Cooper Institutional Review Board reviews the research, Cooper and Polaris could jointly publish the project's findings.

Apple's HealthKit has more than 900 apps to help people track and manage their health. The company's ResearchKit has attracted large numbers of people to sign up for medical research, which is not an easy task. Cooper researchers expect that using the Apple Watch will improve data collection and ultimately, refine treatment plans, the Polaris statement said. (Check out 10 lessons from smartphone-enabled medical devices.)

Polaris and Cooper's oncology team have collaborated on six behavioral health studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. If this pilot provides promising results, the company and hospital will seek an NIH grant for a full-scale breast cancer project.

Nancy Crotti is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.

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