This month, Apple launched a feature for the Apple Watch that alerts users if it determines they may have sleep apnea, potentially leading to treatment for a dangerous health condition that often goes undiagnosed.
Some see this as a good thing: Untreated sleep apnea, a condition where breathing is repeatedly disrupted during sleep, can result in persistent daytime tiredness and in the worst cases, cardiovascular diseases that hasten death. More people should get treatment. But there’s also concern that the simple act of launching the feature on devices used by millions could lead to a surge of anxious people trying to get into sleep clinics when they in fact may not need medical care.
“Does this method lead to enough real-life improvement for the people who are found to have a significant form of sleep apnea?” said Steven Holfinger, a sleep medicine doctor and assistant professor at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “And is that improvement more than the unintended harm to those who either do not have sleep apnea, or who do not benefit from treatment?”
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