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The science behind on-the-wrist blood pressure tracking
The next Apple Watch and Samsung wearables may measure blood pressure using pulse wave analysis and artificial intelligence. Here's how it would work and what it means for health.
In 2018, I helped run one of the first studies to show that health sensor data from wearables, when combined with a deep neural network, can pick up on signs of high blood pressure, sleep apnea, atrial fibrillation, and more. In this post, I’ll try to explain the science behind blood pressure on the wrist (e.g., pulse wave velocity), past medical literature on using deep neural networks to glean signal from consumer wearables, likely limitations of wrist-based blood pressure, and how doctors and patients can incorporate it into medical practice. If the Watch measures the precise times when (a) the heart contracts and (b) the pulse wave arrives at the wrist, then the difference tells you how your blood pressure is changing throughout the day.
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