Apple Announces New Apple Watch Series 3 With Cellular Capabilities and Expanded Wellness Features - arrhythmias

You'll have to ask your doctor if the existing smartphone apps out there for atrial fibrillation do a good enough job to diagnose your problems. 

Apple Announces New Apple Watch Series 3 With Cellular Capabilities and Expanded Wellness Features - arrhythmias

Today, at Apple's annual keynote presentation, the company announced its upcoming fall launches. Among them: a new Apple Watch operating system, watchOS 4, and a brand new Apple Watch Series 3 model with LTE capability. At the event, SELF learned that both have some exciting new fitness- and health-tracking features.

Here's a quick look at the new updates.

The latest operating system comes with useful activity tracking updates and the ability to sync with gym equipment.

The new operating system, Apple watchOS 4, which will be available for download on September 19, 2017 to all Apple Watch users, has updated activity tracking features, like a new HIIT workout option, and auto tracking during swimming workouts. There will also be a new gym feature that will sync with your gym equipment—like treadmills or stationary bikes from brands that partner with Apple on this—so that you can just tap your watch and send your workout metrics to it.

The Heart Rate app will be able to track your resting heart rate throughout the day. It can also alert you to irregular heartbeats.

The Heart Rate app is also getting some high-tech updates to help users better monitor their health. The monitor will now track resting heart rate by taking background heart rate readings throughout the day, and recovery heart rate, or how long it takes your heart rate to return to rest after exercise. There will also be a new feature that notifies you when the monitor detects an elevated heart rate but you don’t appear to be exercising.

Apple is also taking advantage of its heart rate technology (it’s the most-used heart rate monitor in the world, says Apple COO Jeff Williams) to launch a new initiative to help detect irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias. Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of arrhythmia, and is one of the leading risk factors for stroke, according to the National Stroke Association. But often, it's asymptomatic, making it hard for people to know if they have it. Initial studies show the Apple Watch heart rate monitor has been effective in finding irregular heart rhythms, Williams says, so Apple is partnering with Stanford Medicine to launch Apple Heart Study and explore how the watch can help monitor heart conditions in users. The study will use data from the watch to analyze heartbeat and notify users of irregular activity.