Touch-based blood pressure readings via iPhone and Apple Watch could one day become a thing – BGR

The commentary is still positive about Apple's presentation last week of the latest Apple Watch model, which includes new hygiene features that can save lives. The analyst Ben Thompson, in the edition of today's his Stratechery newsletter, writes that Apple is showing us via innovations in products as shows that "the middle ages are not so bad". And that the new feature of the watch that allows you to take an electrocardiogram could show some people how Apple is starting to look like "a tech company that cares about you".

Apple has already obtained permission from the FDA to use the watch for this purpose. But a new report in the the Wall Street newspaper Over the weekend, blood pressure readings could be made possible by an even simpler process for Apple Watch and iPhone users – with a long push on the display.

Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a proof-of-concept iPhone application that measures blood pressure using the screen's 3D Touch "peek-and-pop" feature.

In 2020, Ramakrishna Mukkamala, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the state of Michigan, told WSJAbout three billion people will own smartphones. Many of them have "high blood pressure and do not know it," he adds.

According to the newspaper, "Recently, a group he directed created a way to take blood pressure with a phone, using the same principle as the blood pressure cuff, which varies the pressure on the arm. In a study published in March, the group used a modified smartphone case with two sensors, one that measured blood volume and another that measured applied pressure. Users have constantly pressed their fingers against the case to get a reading. The data was transmitted via Bluetooth to an application, which calculated the blood pressure and displayed it.

This month, however, a study Dr. Mukkamala took part in showed that the same method of long pressing can be applied to sensors already embedded in phones that help users take selfies and take 3D Touch. "The group has developed an iPhone application that guides the placement of fingertips and calculates blood pressure," says the WSJ. "By comparing the results to a traditional blood pressure cuff, the application was less accurate than the cuff. But Dr. Mukkamala said it was comparable to a headline, a device that has been approved by the FDA to measure arm blood pressure, but used primarily so far in research.

Dr. Mukkamala hopes to commercialize the touch-sensitive blood pressure application and make it available next year, although additional work and testing is still needed before approval. Yet the possibilities that this opens up offer yet another reminder of the new era that Apple is introducing with its now firmly positioned watch, in the words of Apple's chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, "A smart guardian of your health".