Apple might be working on expanding its health-related features. A new patent application has been discovered which suggests that the company has been looking into automatic blood pressure monitoring functionality. The patent details that an alert would be triggered by parameters that the user has set or by data that has been collected by wearable sensors on devices like the Apple Watch.
The benefits of this implementation include minimizing variables that may affect blood pressure readings as well as the ability to provide context to healthcare professionals who examine the data, it may be given to them by the user or transmitted to them automatically.
Apple’s patent application doesn’t only detail the measurement triggers but also details the examination of blood pressure readings alongside other data. For example, it might examine the readings with a calendar to suggest that the change in blood pressure happened during a meeting.
The details mentioned in this patent are wide-reaching but that’s always the case with patents. It highlights notifications between a wearable device and the user as well as blood pressure cuffs that are worn constantly. They would actuate immediately similar to the way those worn by patients in a hospital do.
Since this is only a patent at this point in time, it remains to be seen how this technology is brought to market. Whether or not Apple will even do that is anybody’s guess right now.
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