Apple may use Vision Pro for mental health diagnosis and treatment

AppleInsider

A new report claims that internally, Apple is discussing how Apple Vision Pro could detect signs of mental health issues, and perhaps also help treat them.

Apple Vision Pro

Apple has already been said to have more plans for Vision Pro use cases than it has announced, and there have been health possibilities, such as surgeons seeing vital data during operations. Plus a very great many of the company's patents to do with Vision Pro have it using sensors to gauge a wearer's stress levels.

According to The Information, Apple employees have also been working on a much more specific use of the technology to help with mental health. Citing unnamed sources said to have direct knowledge of the discussions, the publication says that Vision Pro could measure a wearer's facial expressions to detect depression, anxiety, or more.

Then, according to one of the sources, the headset could display images and play back audio that could improve the wearer's emotions.

Reportedly, Apple staff including Mike Rockwell, leader of Apple's Vision Products Group, have spent considerable time on the idea. They are also said to have hired health experts explicitly to explore such possible functions.

Apple did not comment on the article. However, The Information says that many people who worked on Vision Pro over the last few years say that they had been extensively exploring such mental health ideas.

In each case, the core concept is to use Vision Pro's cameras and eye-tracking features to measure what's called the wearer's affect. "Affect" is a psychology term covering feelings and moods that a person has, and which our bodies indicate.

The report is not clear where Apple stands with the research, or whether they are even some benefits that might come with later iterations of the Vision Pro.

Apple says that the Vision Pro will launch in early 2024. Most recently, it was reported that staff training with the product would begin in the first months of the year.


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mikethemartian

No hospital is going to use an Apple consumer product for a safety critical application.

9secondkox2

mikethemartian said:

No hospital is going to use an Apple consumer product for a safety critical application.

But… but it’s “pro…”

lordjohnwhorfin

Use the headset to drive you insane and thus confirm the diagnostic: genius!

kkee

Hospitals should open up with new technology if it's available, not as alternative, but for supplement, to help patients. Any helps are helpful. This is why I hate red tape.

tht

You could detect quite a few health conditions through examinations of your retinas and eyes. So, if OpticID can provide good retinal data, a wearer of the VP could be told they are diabetic, or is getting there, have high blood pressure, have nerve or brain conditions, types of cancer. Basically it can correlate your retina's and eye movements to a set of known symptoms, which is basically what the eye machines and doctor's do.

Any condition increase eye pressure, affects eye movement, changes the blood flow in the retina, etc, could be detected by OpticID and eye tracking performance.

It's early. They still need to answer the question of getting people to use it regularly.

dewme

mikethemartian said:

No hospital is going to use an Apple consumer product for a safety critical application.

I concur with your statement as stated. But it is within the realm of possibility that a specialized derivative of Vision Pro could be developed, reviewed, tested within the scope of medical product testing requirements, and eventually certified for medical use.  Of course such a product would no longer be a consumer product and would probably cost at least 10X - 20X the cost of the consumer version of the device.

The use of the Vision Pro for diagnosing mental health conditions is very interesting … but I don’t yet see how the device would be administered or used in practice for diagnostic use cases, especially when it comes to users/wearers who have no previous diagnosis of mental health conditions. 

Apple’s current health related diagnostic features in wearables are focused on informing the wearer of a potential condition that requires further investigation by a medical professional. 

I would expect that mental health monitoring would be implemented in much the same way. Vision Pro users would receive alerts telling them to seek further help from their doctor about possible mental health concerns. From a holistic healthcare standpoint this seems fine, as long as the diagnostic detection results in the intended action by the user/wearer. 

However, I’m not so sure that informing someone of a possible and previously undiagnosed mental health condition would really be appropriate, in part due to the wide variation in how mental health conditions present themselves in different individuals, not to mention the possible stigma. This lowers the likelihood that the warning will compel the user/wearer to seek further diagnosis and treatment, if necessary. 

I can see a case for only allowing mental health monitoring features being usable when the user is already working with a mental health professional, who would provide an activation key via a prescription. This is the treatment use case. 

The best case outcome imo is that bringing more focus on mental health as an integral part of everyone’s total health management equation. This may help negate the stigma and compel more people to be more aware and actively monitor every aspect of their total health, both physical and mental.  

entropys

I wonder if it could be used for doing eye tests?

davidmalcolm

So the thing is PTSD is causeD by the brain damaging itself when exposed to extreme stress. There’s a technique called brainspotting that has a person talk a bit about the events while the practitioner watches their eye movement. Turns out if they watch the eye movement they can find a spot that when you stare at it, your upper brain starts to relax/shut down and your limbic system (some call it the lizard brain) is actually able to repair the damage.

It’s not a CURE but it’s an incredibly helpful rehab tool. I went into it super skeptical but as I was doing it I had mild visual hallucinations and afterward it honestly felt like I was more myself than I had been in the previous 7 years. 

If Apple actually has somebody get in contact with the people who do that kind of work, you could probably automate the heck out of the process. 

byronl

dewme said:

mikethemartian said:

No hospital is going to use an Apple consumer product for a safety critical application.

I concur with your statement as stated. But it is within the realm of possibility that a specialized derivative of Vision Pro could be developed, reviewed, tested within the scope of medical product testing requirements, and eventually certified for medical use.  Of course such a product would no longer be a consumer product and would probably cost at least 10X - 20X the cost of the consumer version of the device.

The use of the Vision Pro for diagnosing mental health conditions is very interesting … but I don’t yet see how the device would be administered or used in practice for diagnostic use cases, especially when it comes to users/wearers who have no previous diagnosis of mental health conditions. 

Apple’s current health related diagnostic features in wearables are focused on informing the wearer of a potential condition that requires further investigation by a medical professional. 

I would expect that mental health monitoring would be implemented in much the same way. Vision Pro users would receive alerts telling them to seek further help from their doctor about possible mental health concerns. From a holistic healthcare standpoint this seems fine, as long as the diagnostic detection results in the intended action by the user/wearer. 

However, I’m not so sure that informing someone of a possible and previously undiagnosed mental health condition would really be appropriate, in part due to the wide variation in how mental health conditions present themselves in different individuals, not to mention the possible stigma. This lowers the likelihood that the warning will compel the user/wearer to seek further diagnosis and treatment, if necessary. 

I can see a case for only allowing mental health monitoring features being usable when the user is already working with a mental health professional, who would provide an activation key via a prescription. This is the treatment use case. 

The best case outcome imo is that bringing more focus on mental health as an integral part of everyone’s total health management equation. This may help negate the stigma and compel more people to be more aware and actively monitor every aspect of their total health, both physical and mental.  

are we talking about medication prescription? because a lot of mental health treatments don't involve such prescriptions

byronl

davidmalcolm said:

So the thing is PTSD is causeD by the brain damaging itself when exposed to extreme stress. There’s a technique called brainspotting that has a person talk a bit about the events while the practitioner watches their eye movement. Turns out if they watch the eye movement they can find a spot that when you stare at it, your upper brain starts to relax/shut down and your limbic system (some call it the lizard brain) is actually able to repair the damage.

It’s not a CURE but it’s an incredibly helpful rehab tool. I went into it super skeptical but as I was doing it I had mild visual hallucinations and afterward it honestly felt like I was more myself than I had been in the previous 7 years. 

If Apple actually has somebody get in contact with the people who do that kind of work, you could probably automate the heck out of the process. 

It's also called EMDR I think.