Hypertension? Your Apple watch is watching with smart notifications for Indian users
The algorithm works passively in the background reviewing data over 30-day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension
Globally, an estimated 1.4 billion adults were affected by hypertension in 2024, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which also says that uncontrolled high blood pressure claims more than 10 million lives every year.
Yet, just over one in five have it under control either through medication or addressing modifiable health risks. On Thursday, Apple started rolling out its hypertension notification technology to the Apple Watch in India.
“We think that with this feature, it’ll provide actionable insights for our users. It is what we call an intelligent guardian feature, meaning that it’s working in the background, it’s passive. There’s a short setup that doesn’t require any calibration with a cuff or anything like that. You turn the feature on and it works in the background, checking for signs of hypertension,” Dr Adam Phillips, a cardiologist at Apple, told The Telegraph over a call.
Hypertension notifications use data from the optical heart sensor on Apple Watch to analyse how a user’s blood vessels respond to the beats of the heart. The algorithm works passively in the background reviewing data over 30-day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension.
Often dubbed a “silent killer”, hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. “With all of our health features, the goal is to empower users on their overall health journey. And so we expect that this feature and these notifications will encourage people to seek care. And in many cases this will lead to diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, helping people avoid things like heart attacks, stroke and kidney disease,” said Dr Phillips.
The feature has been developed with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies totalling over 100,000 participants. Its performance was then validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants. While hypertension notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension, with the reach of Apple Watch, the feature is expected to notify over one million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
If users receive a hypertension notification, the smartwatch will recommend that they log their blood pressure for seven days using a third-party blood pressure cuff and share the results with their health provider. All related data can be logged in the Health app on the iPhone and exported as a PDF for your doctor.
The feature is not tied to the latest smartwatch from Apple; the notifications will be available on Apple Watch Series 9 and later and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later. But the feature is not intended for use by people under 22 years old, those who have been previously diagnosed with hypertension, or during pregnancy.
