The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to health monitoring into the home, and companies are rushing to meet the demand.
Apple on Tuesday announced its Watch Series 6, with a focus on the device’s health capabilities. Already able to detect heart rate, perform an electrocardiogram and track physical activity, the new version can now determine blood oxygen levels through LED clusters and photodiodes.
The new Apple Watch is one of many remote health monitoring devices being rolled out by tech and health companies alike.
The change is being driven by more accurate devices as well as a shift in patients themselves, who increasingly want to optimize wellness, not just avoid illness.
« This is a golden moment for distributed medicine and at-home diagnostics, » says Siddarth Satish, the CEO of Gauss, a machine-vision startup that developed the first completely at-home COVID-19 test with the biotech company Cellex.
