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RandomTitanium

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 21, 2022
4
0
Hi, I was looking at the specs of the newer galaxy watches and I noticed that they support blood pressure monitoring. I didn’t see that much of a technical difference between that watch and the Apple Watch in terms of the sensors, so I was wondering why doesn’t the Apple Watch support blood pressure monitoring in a similar way to how Samsung does it now. Is it not technically possible?
 

russell_314

macrumors 604
Feb 10, 2019
6,646
10,230
USA
It’s probably technically possible for Apple to do this, but not in a way that Apple would ever implement it. From reading up on the Samsung galaxy watch, you actually have to buy a medical blood pressure cuff and calibrate the watch every four weeks.

Also, in one of the articles I read, I don’t know if it’s up-to-date but it hasn’t received FDA approval so it’s disabled in the USA. Of course, there’s probably some hack workaround for android, but that wouldn’t be available for iOS.

For Apple to do something it would have to work for most users and not require some crazy setup. Apple doesn’t go for first but they go for making it better.
 
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ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,638
Indonesia
Hi, I was looking at the specs of the newer galaxy watches and I noticed that they support blood pressure monitoring. I didn’t see that much of a technical difference between that watch and the Apple Watch in terms of the sensors, so I was wondering why doesn’t the Apple Watch support blood pressure monitoring in a similar way to how Samsung does it now. Is it not technically possible?
Because it's not actually measuring your blood pressure. You still need to "calibrate" it every 4 weeks using an actual blood pressure machine. It's called blood pressure "monitoring" for a reason, not measuring.
 
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RandomTitanium

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 21, 2022
4
0
Because it's not actually measuring your blood pressure. You still need to "calibrate" it every 4 weeks using an actual blood pressure machine. It's called blood pressure "monitoring" for a reason, not measuring.
If I’m being honest, I’d be fine with that
 

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,638
Indonesia
If I’m being honest, I’d be fine with that
I would advise against it. Blood pressure is not like blood oxygen level or blood sugar where real time info are useful and can be measured reliably. Even on normal person, blood pressure varies wildly by the second. A blood pressure measurement at one point in time is useless information without context and existing patterns.

It's basically random. Useless imo.
 
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