The Apple Watch is used in a study to predict pain levels for some Sickle Cell disease patients
Researchers at Duke University conducted a survey of patients who were 18 years old and up when admitted to the Duke University SCD Day Hospital. There are two objectives the researchers had; they wanted to see if the Apple Watch could predict the pain scores in hospital patients admitted to the hospital with Sickle Cell disease. They also want to create and study machine learning algorithms for the Apple Watch designed to predict the pain scores of VOCs
Real life image from the CDC showing sickle cell disease
The study could help doctors improve how they treat patients with Sickle Cell disease
The average study participant wore the Apple Watch for 2 hours and 17 minutes allowing the researchers to collect 15,683 data points. The report’s conclusion states “The strong performance of the model in all metrics validates feasibility and the ability to use data collected from a noninvasive device, the Apple Watch, to predict the pain scores during VOCs. It is a novel and feasible approach and presents a low-cost method that could benefit clinicians and individuals with sickle cell disease in the treatment of VOCs.”
To determine how much insulin they need to inject before eating, a diabetic takes a small needle known as a lancet to draw drops of blood which are collected on a disposable test strip and placed in a pocket-sized machine known as a glucometer. Not only are these test strips expensive (and can be used only once) but for some it is painful to extract the drops of blood required for each test.
