FDA approves Apple Watch to help Rune Labs monitor Parkinson’s patients

FDA approves Apple Watch to help Rune Labs monitor Parkinson’s patients: On Monday, Rune Labs, a San Francisco-based company. Said it had acquired FDA approval to utilize the Apple Watch to track tremors and other typical symptoms in Parkinson’s patients.

The Rune Labs program takes advantage of the Apple Watch’s motion sensors, which can already identify when a person falls. According to Rune Labs Chief Executive Brian Pepin in an interview. Apple Watch data will merge with data from other sources, including a Medtronic implant that can analyze brain impulses.

The purpose of Rune Labs is for clinicians to utilize the combined data to determine. If and how to fine-tune the treatment of their patients. Currently. Most clinicians must collect data on a patient’s movements by monitoring them during a brief clinical visit. Which is inefficient since Parkinson’s symptoms might change dramatically over time, according to Pepin.

According to Pepin, the Rune Labs’ StrivePD software platform will give clinicians a constant stream of observations over lengthy periods using the Apple Watch.

FDA approves Apple Watch to help Rune Labs monitor Parkinson’s patients

“It’s a tough choice to make when you just have a little context.” Pepin said, “when you think about the process of bringing someone to their best treatment or combination of pharmaceuticals or devices. Or even whether or not a patient could be a good match for a given clinical study.”

The FDA approval of Rune Labs is the first significant use of Apple’s software tools for evaluating movement disorders, announced in 2018.

Apple has released watchOS 9, including new watch faces and improved health tracking.

The gadget proved successful in monitoring Parkinson’s symptoms. According to research published last year in the journal Science Translational Medicine by a group of Apple experts.

“It took approximately eight minutes for the team lead to come back to me and say. ‘Hey, excellent, let’s investigate this,'” Pepin said after contacting Apple about the tools.

Apple has worked with several other firms to utilize the Apple Watch as a health monitoring device, including Johnson & Johnson, to see whether it may help reduce stroke risk.