Apple Watch blood oxygen feature helps doctor save air passenger's life
The Apple Watch has been credited with helping save the life of an airline passenger, using the legally-troubled blood oxygen feature.
Apple Watch Blood Oxygen app
The various features of the Apple Watch have helped people in need in various ways. However, it has rarely been used as a tool by medical professionals to help save lives in an emergency situation with very limited resources.
On a January 9 Ryanair flight to Verona, Italy from Birmingham, UK, a woman in her 70s was found to be short of breath, prompting cabin crew to search for a doctor onboard the flight. NHS doctor Rashid Riaz was on the flight and stepped in to help.
The woman reportedly had a history of heart issues, according to the BBC, and did not immediately respond to the doctor's queries.
As part of his efforts, Dr Riaz used an Apple Watch borrowed from the crew to try and monitor her vitals. "The Apple Watch helped me to find out the patient had low oxygen saturation," he explained.
An onboard oxygen cylinder was then used on the woman until the plane landed in Italy an hour later. The passenger recovered quickly before disembarking aided by medical staff.
"I used a lot of my own learning during this flight on how to use the gadget," Dr. Riaz commented. "It is a lesson in how we can improve in-flight journeys [with] this sort of emergency [via] a basic gadget which nowadays is easily available."
The blood oxygen capabilities of the Apple Watch have been at the heart of a patent infringement lawsuit and a sales ban in the United States, with Apple removing the function in the country to try and appease the courts.
Joe Kiani, the CEO of Masimo who contends Apple infringes on his company's patents, said in an interview on January 18 that Apple is "masquerading what they are offering to consumers as a reliable, medical pulse oximeter, even though it's not." Kiani maintains "I really feel wholeheartedly that consumers are better off without it."
Apple advises on its website that the measurements found in the watchOS Blood Oxygen app are "not intended for medical use," and are designed only for "general fitness and wellness purposes."
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Comments
Do airlines carry pulse oximeters on-board? Probably not. Do people carry their own pulse oximeters wherever they go? Probably not. Was the woman's life saved because she had a pulse oximeter on her watch, which provided enough information that the cabin crew knew to give her oxygen? Absolutely! Do we credit this to Masimo? Absolutely not!
According to Masimo:
Apple's implementation is infringing on Masimo patent = T
Apple tech is neither a reliable and/or medical pulse oximeter = T
Then a simple truth table says T + T = T and therefore Masimo implementation is neither a reliable and/or medical pulse oximeter.
We could add According to Masimo:
Apple is "masquerading what they are offering to consumers as a reliable, medical pulse oximeter, even though it's not." = F
From the article (you would know if you read it): Apple advises on its website that the measurements found in the watchOS Blood Oxygen app are "not intended for medical use," and are designed only for "general fitness and wellness purposes."
Kiani maintains "I really feel wholeheartedly that consumers are better off without it." = F
Ok, it's true that he maintains it but he is wrong. According to the article, a DOCTOR on the flight said ""The Apple Watch helped me to find out the patient had low oxygen saturation." Do you know better, Dr. Omasou?
Masimo is, IMHO, engaging in a bad PR strategy in the court of public opinion. Not only will this hurt their image, it will also not help their legal case one bit. The jury was already 6-1 in favor of Apple last time, and if they continue to make themselves look bad while Apple stays mostly quiet about the issue until it comes to trial again, Apple has a very good chance of winning in the end. Even if Apple loses, they won't be hurt nearly as much by it as Masimo would be; one feature on one of Apple's smaller products won't break the bank, but Masimo has sunk a lot of money into this case already and are defending a patent that is clearly of greater importance to their own business.
No I don't agree. IDK if Apple implementation copies Masimo's technology.
What I do know.
Looking at Masimo's web site, they appear to be a solid company making medical devices that help people.
Masimo doesn't appear to be a patent troll and they actually make and sells products.
Masimo must enforce any and all patents b/c if they don't they can lose them.
Did Apple leverage Masimo's algorithms? IDK.
End of day Apple will rewrite the contested algorithm and move forward.
Before Christmas, as there was the potential that the White House might overrule the looming International Trade Commission ban on watch imports, Masimo was publicly blustering confidently about how they were waiting by their phones for Apple to call and make an offer. Apparently not wanting to get involved, the White House didn't intervene, but Apple found another way through, by simply using software to switch off the pulse oximetry feature in newly imported watches, giving breathing room while they appeal the ITC ban altogether. Now Masimo's CEO is making pissy public comments to defame Apple's pulse oximeter. This continues to look more like Masimo seeking a shakedown payoff, rather than an aggrieved company seeking to protect its patents from infringement. Meanwhile, by declining to buy Masimo's silence to protect public perceptions, Apple is acting like the one who knows the facts are in their favor, making a win in the long-run more important than papering over the conflict with money.
Having said that, I think Masimo's claims about the usefulness of Apple's pulse oximetry are not completely accurate and more posturing than reality. The Apple Watch oximeter may not be medical grade but that in no way makes is useless. This story is a perfect example.
As opposed to the ECG feature saving lives by detecting heart rhythm abnormalities in individuals without symptoms (or disregarding symptoms they may be experiencing), the Apple Watch oximeter function is not. Let us not give undue credit to it!
And on a personal note my father used pulse oximetry before he died in hospice (which was the first Apple Watch we bought as a family by the way) to monitor his limits of activity.
It would have been useful during this flight because there is some emerging evidence that hyperoxia is deleterious in cardiac conditions.
There is also a mistaken belief that pulse oximetry is some type of high tech rocket science but the science of sending different wavelengths of light through pulsatile tissue and assessing the difference to calculate oxyhemoglobin percentage is straightforward and been known for decades even before Masimo & their own Tim Sweeney existed.
Masimo has appended the wikipedia page on pulse-oximetry to add some complexity in this regard and I am sure that they have offered some unique refinements because they need to detect reflected light but still…
with millions of Apple Watches in use, it seems like a stretch to discount that their has been no utility to this feature.
Any of us would administer oxygen to someone who suddenly develops shortness of breath IRRESPECTIVE of their oxygen saturation. So, attributing the Apple watch feature as "helping to save" the passenger's life" is hyperbole.
Great that the Doctor improvised and was able to perform a diagnosis. Not great that the aircraft didn't have a well outfitted first aid kit, or perhaps the crew didn't know about it, which isn't great either.
Current regulation last updated in 2006!
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentid/22516
2014 article.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3789915/