Hey guys,
Firstly, welcome to the 3 people who have subscribed since the last newsletter!
This week, I (amongst others) were captivated by Apple’s new releases. I’m a sucker for good marketing, branding and product release videos - and no one does them better than Apple!
Notably, Apple really stepped up in the longevity space, particularly with their watch updates and their health app.
Some of their updates on the Apple watch/health app: more frequent heart rate sensing, better HRV metrics, a ‘Readiness score’ from 0-10, a ‘Health Age’, and a longevity tab on the health app, spanning cardiovascular health, sleep, mental wellbeing, movement, metabolic health, hearing, and nutrition. They’re also offering blood panels in the US, ordered from within their app.
My takes:
Apple watches are one of the most accurate wearables (see QuantifiedScientist’s tests on Youtube), but before this anouncement they didn’t really interpret their raw metrics into combined ‘scores’ like Oura and WHOOP did. Apple is throwing their hat into the ring.
These ‘health’, ‘age’ and ‘readiness’ scores are not clinically validated scores. I.e. As wellness products, these companies can come up with whatever scores they like, using internal algorithms and science that usually isn’t shared with the public for critique. Do most people care? Probably not - as long as it gives them something easily digestible that they can look towards, particularly for those who are interested in longevity (or signalling it) and want to track it longitudinally.
A more macro view is one of growing interest in personalised, preventative health. Wearables give you some data to work with, and blood tests are becoming easy-to-add objective tests for these companies, but how will these ‘wellness’ devices stand on personalised medical interpretation? I’m not sure they will. It doesn’t scale so easily (thats why these blood test reports often just give the results and direct you to your doctor to act on them). Someone’s gotta deal with all that information and medical anxiety. Existing medical services will see more pressure to act on this collective information (NHS GPs - good luck), but there is also opportunity for private providers to seek innovative ways to plug into this market.
What are your thoughts? Let me know by replying to this email!
🔗 The Weekly Link-Up
Edinburgh researchers reviewed 27 studies on ambient AI scribes and found the summaries lean heavily towards clinical detail, often at the expense of the patient's own story. They also highlighted that people may hold back on sensitive things, substance use, abuse and mental health when they know the room is being recorded.
DeepMind has published predictions for all roughly nine billion possible single-letter changes in the human genome. That is more than thirty times the size of the AlphaFold database, free for non-commercial use.
Older adults at risk of dementia who followed a structured programme of exercise, diet, cognitive training and social engagement improved their thinking scores 55% more than those given standard health advice. Still the most reliable intervention we have, and still the hardest one to get people to stick to.
The Quantified Scientist put both through his usual lab comparison against reference devices, covering exercise heart rate, sleep staging, resting heart rate and HRV. If you are weighing up the two, this is a good place to start.
See you next week!
Dr Fai J
📹 This Week on the Channel
[No vids - but I’ll be back this week!]
🤓 About Me
I'm Faisal, a Doctor working in the NHS who's passionate about longevity, wellness and healthtech.
Website: www.faisaljamshaid.com - home to my newsletter, blog, creative videos and more.
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