Apple launches a broad health study to contribute to the development of future features.

Apple has announced the launch of a new research initiative called the Apple Health Study, which introduces a novelty compared to its previous initiatives in this area: it does not focus on a specific health area. Instead, the study will collect information from devices like iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods, with the aim of discovering new connections between different aspects of both physical and mental health.

From a research perspective, this initiative is promising. However, for technology enthusiasts, Apple has demonstrated its ability to deliver valuable features based on its previous health studies. For example, the hearing test feature in AirPods was developed from data obtained in the Apple Hearing Study. Sumbul Desai, Apple's vice president of health, mentioned that these studies are used not only to learn but also to guide their decisions on future features to be included in their product roadmap, carefully selecting those that are backed by scientific evidence.

This virtual study will be available through the Research app and will be conducted in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital, an institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Participants who join the study will not only provide their data but will also respond to periodic surveys about their daily lives and habits. Topics to be addressed range from physical activity, aging, and cardiovascular health to metabolic health, mobility, and sleep quality. Initially, the study is projected to last approximately five years, with the possibility of being extended.

Although the objectives may seem vague, this is partly due to the fact that the scope and scale of the study are considerably larger than those of traditional clinical research. For example, the Apple Heart Study accumulated participation from 400,000 people, compared to conventional studies that generally have smaller samples, rarely exceeding thousands of participants. Fewer studies manage to achieve long-term follow-up. Expanding the focus and scale could reveal connections that have previously gone unidentified.

Calum MacRae, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Harvard, who is acting as the principal investigator in the Apple Health Study, anticipates that it is likely that signals previously overlooked will be discovered due to the lack of such extensive and ongoing studies. Unlike traditional research, which usually follows a rigid approach from the start, the vast and diverse population of Apple product users will allow for acceleration in scientific discovery and progress.

MacRae also notes that the extensive scale of the study could help researchers identify and fill informational gaps. Conventional clinical studies often have limited participant populations, which can lead to biased findings. An example of this is the insufficient inclusion of women in clinical trials between 1977 and 1993, leaving a significant gap in knowledge about women's health. With the approach of the Apple Health Study, it is hoped that certain dynamics, such as the impact of time zones on sleep, will be explored.

One of the hopes is that this study will enable the development of more proactive features, such as identifying early changes in hearing to reduce the risk of cognitive decline in the future. Desai also reinforced that new features may not be limited to hardware, mentioning focus modes as a form of software that could be considered related to health.

Finally, Desai clarifies that it will take time before tangible results from the Apple Health Study are seen, as product development can take two to three years, with previous examples taking up to five years to implement. She states that while results will not appear immediately, the development pipeline will be robust in the future.