Apple to Investigate Mental Health Monitoring Solutions
The Apple Watch remains unrivaled in terms of heart health tracking gadgets. While features such as continuous BPM, ECG, Afib detection, and blood oxygen may seem ordinary to users, the Apple Watch goes above and beyond with additional capabilities like monitoring resting or walking heart rate, heart rate variability, heart rate notifications, cardio recovery, cardio fitness, waist circumference, walking steadiness, stairs speed, personal medication, and BMI. With all these advanced features, the latest Apple Watch undoubtedly stands as the most advanced smartwatch for detecting trends in heart health.
Now after heart health, Apple is focusing on mental health. The Cupertino-based tech giant wants to offer the same kind of “data awareness” for mental health without infringing on your privacy.
For better heart health, most people know what steps to take: Eat well. Exercise. Do an annual checkup with your doctor. We want to bring that same level of awareness to mental health, too: Dr. Lauren Cheung, Senior Manager, Clinical team, Apple.
“To improve heart health, most people know what steps to take: Eat well. Exercise. Get an annual checkup with your doctor. We want to bring the same level of awareness to mental health. That’s why we’re introducing our new features to help people everywhere take better care of their mental health and raise awareness of this important on the subject. And as always, these features are based on science, with privacy at the heart,” said Dr. Lauren Cheung, lead clinical team at Apple.
Apple recently announced new health features in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and watchOS 10. New mental health features allow users to log their moment-to-moment emotions and daily moods, see valuable insights, and easily access assessments and resources.
“iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch offer new vision health features that promote healthy behaviors and help reduce the risk of nearsightedness, and the Health app is coming to iPad, offering users new ways to view their health information,” according to Apple.
Dr. Sumbul Desai, M.D., Chief Health Officer at Apple, said, “Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey. Mental health and eye health are important, but often overlooked, and we’re excited to introduce features that provide valuable new insights to help users can gain an even better understanding of their health. These insights help users in their daily decisions and provide more informed conversations with doctors.”
Our goal is to empower people to take charge of their own health journey: Dr. Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health.
Apple currently relies on user input to measure data markers. The Health app in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 and the Mindfulness app in watchOS 10 offer users the opportunity to reflect on their state of mind. Users can choose to indicate how they feel, ranging from Very Pleasant to Very Unpleasant. They can then choose the associations that have the biggest impact on their feelings, such as Travel or Family, and describe their feelings, such as Grateful or Worried.
The Health app in iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, and the Mindfulness app in watchOS 10, offers users an option to reflect on their state of mind.
In the Health app, users see valuable insights that help them identify what might be influencing their state of mind—whether it’s associations or lifestyle factors like sleep or exercise—and use those insights to manage their overall health.
Of course, Apple has a long way to go to help people be more aware of their mental health. But the good thing is that the company is showing its prowess in software and data science to help users, and not showing any desire to sell another gadget to do the same thing right now.
– Mental health is as important as physical health. So we design tools that give you an understanding of both and the connections between them. There are important benefits to recognizing emotions as we experience them. Reflecting more deeply on and labeling these emotions currently has therapeutic benefits, and research suggests that it can improve emotional self-awareness, emotional regulation, and reduce symptoms of depression,” explained Dr. Cheung.
