2021 Apple Watch Series 6: A Doctor's Review By Digitize Health

- This is the Apple Watch Series 6, and it is one of the best fitness watches I have ever used. It might save your life. It could level you up on your health and will probably do it in the most stylish way possible. Sorry, Android users. It doesn't work without an iPhone but it is just so good, it may be enough to convince you to move to Apple. I'm Dr Munim Moiz, and this is a doctor's review of the Apple Watch Series 6.

(upbeat music) There is so much to talk about, so hold onto your seat, because this is going to be one heck of a speed run. Let's get straight to the health features, and start with the oxygen saturations measurement. It is one of the most reliable smartwatch saturations monitors, I have used in a smartwatch in that number one, it rarely fails to get a reading, and number two, it also measures your saturations intermittently in the background without you having to press any buttons. It's even quicker than Samsung's flagship Galaxy Watch 3. Oxygen saturations are an indirect measure of how much oxygen is in the blood.

Various conditions can cause it to drop, like chest infections such as COVID, asthma, sepsis, heart conditions and more. If I speak to a patient on the phone who is unwell, I now frequently ask them about their saturations monitor, and if they have one, because it forms actually part of the diagnostic puzzle, in helping me decide what to do next for them. At the moment the saturations monitor does not tell you if the levels are too low, what to do. So, if in doubt, you would still need to speak to a doctor. But the data provided to a healthcare professional or physician can be really helpful.

The background readings are particularly helpful to know what's going on at nighttime for example, when persistent drops can sometimes be an indication of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where your breathing is impaired, when the muscles in your throat and your neck are relaxed. The ECG and EKG measuring provides information on the beating of the heart from one view of the heart just remember you're not getting a complete EKG. Rather, it's only looking at the heart from one view or one angle. So a hospital EKG machine will see up to 12 views. But the one view you do get can actually really be quite helpful.

It can reveal important abnormalities in the beating of the heart, nevertheless. It is one of the easiest ways to get a reading on any watch I've used. You simply place your finger on the crown, and about 30 seconds later, you have a reading. The watch can detect rhythms that may be consistent with atrial fibrillation. And this is a condition where the heart is beating irregularly.

Atrial fibrillation once confirmed by a doctor, is linked to an increased risk of stroke. So preventing this becomes important once diagnosed. It can't tell you about any other rhythm abnormalities but if you ever wanted to measure your heart trace because you were concerned, for any reason, you can do so in seconds, save it, and show your doctor who can review it. Just remember, though, if you're ever feeling poorly and are concerned it might be your heart, please don't take any risks, and do not use the watch feature to reassure you that everything is fine. It cannot screen for heart attacks, as an example.

The other thing it can detect is beating that is too fast, or too slow, given what you are doing at the time. And it will usually alert you. You don't need to do any physical button pushing yourself with this. This feature has saved the lives of one of my patients. Their heart was beating fast, despite not exercising.

And they called for an ambulance. And within the hour, he was actually being cardioverted, in other words, those defibrillation pads being put onto his chest, to bring him back into a normal rhythm again. They had actually saved him from a life-threatening rhythm. If ever there was a reason to get this watch, this may be it. The fitness part of the watch uses a closing your rings concept, which is slightly gimmicky and not obvious to understand at first.

Your three rings, red, green and blue, correspond to moving exercising and standing. You can set targets for each of these yourself, and every time you close your rings the Apple watch high-fives your wrist with some tactic feedback. Do enough physical activity, and you will get badges. And the system works okay, and it focuses on some often ignored metrics like standing, which can really help prevent or worsen back pain, one of the simplest things many of us take for granted, just like drinking water. I was never excited though, or compelled enough by the system to close my rings.

And I think Fitbit's badges of achievement have now achieved legendary status, and are forced to be reckoned with. But you can see the Apple have the potential to make improvements in this area. The fitness monitoring works incredibly well, with Apple's new fitness plus service, especially through an Apple TV. The watch connects effortlessly. And it's really cool to watch your heart rate and see your calories burned, whilst you're exercising.

I've never felt more involved with a floor based home exercises. The Apple fitness sessions by the way are fantastic. And maybe I'll leave that to another review to go through fully. In the time of the pandemic, we've learned that we can do some really healthy stretching and movement exercises without having to go to the gym. And the Apple watch makes this now more legitimate.

It legitimizes the whole process. You're probably wondering what the series six is like to run with, or exercise with. And in all honesty, it's not significantly different to any other fitness watches out there. The usual measurements were lapse time, running heart rate, GPS monitoring. They're all here, and viewable once you've done your exercise, say on a map.

The beauty of the watch is its compatibility with a host of different exercise apps, such as writing apps like the Nike Run Club. Although you might find that the Nike Run Club. trainers get incredibly irritating to listen to. - If this is your first run, or just your first run with us, let me be the first to thank you for running with NRC. You're running right now, right? I hope so.

- Many of these other apps are the sort of quality you've come to expect from an app made for an Apple device. You can of course swim with the watch. As it's water resistant to 50 meters the Apple watch will automatically lock the screen. So whilst you're in the water, you don't accidentally make any input errors. And when you're done, you rotate the crown to eject water.

And you can see these tiny little jets coming out, which is really cool. Apple sleep monitoring, lacks the sophistication of the Fitbit. It doesn't show you how your sleep quality varied overnight. It's a rudimentary implementation or sleep analysis. But you do get average sleep hours, timings that you slept for, and a slightly inaccurate time in bed data, which has never really correlated with reality for me.

A nice little feature is the ability to set your watch to do not disturb and bedtime, which will automatically do the same for your iPhone. You can, however, download a watch app vari of the famous iPhone app, Sleep Cycle, which will set intelligent alarms for you, based on what stage of sleep you are in the morning, hopefully lead into more restorative awakening. The fitness app on the iPhone provides some further interesting data points, some of which will be alerted to you by the watch, for example, loud noises. The app will show you the seven-day average exposure to loud noise, and whether it was excessive or not. I have not seen this sensing ability used so effectively to date.

And this is really important, Because many of us are working ourselves to requiring hearing aids in older age, due to the chronic damage from loud noises. Other data points in the app are unlikely to be life-changing, but they're cool nonetheless. So things like your resting energy use, and flights climbed, and hand washing time, step length, step double support, walking speed, walking asymmetry. I mean, some of these may be useful to show to your physiotherapists, for example, if you're suffering with musculoskeletal problems. Some of the data points garnered through the watch, and on the app, are a little bit suspect in my mind.

So for example, cardiovascular fitness, as measured by VO2 max. - Aaaaah! - Now, just remember it's a trends that matter more than the raw numbers, 'cause they're using these measurements as a proxy for real laboratory measurements, where you need to be wearing masks, et cetera, to get a true, accurate value of your VO2, max. So I'm actually okay with having a below average VO2 max on the system, as long as it gets better over time. And in fact, check out our video on VO2 max, to understand why. Then there are the other host of features that are a combination of fun to use, and important actually for personal safety: a torchlight for the darkness, fall detection which seems to do a good job of rooting up fake fours for real falls, A walkie-talkie feature to get quick access to someone else who has an Apple watch.

Sorry, are you ready now? - I was ready 10 minutes ago. - All right, let's rock and roll. And of course there's an SOS feature in the watch, which is again, potentially a life-saving feature. So say you cannot reach your phone, the watch will allow you to immediately connect to a nearby phone, if you don't have 4G or the LTE version of the Apple watch, and contact the emergency services automatically, and contact your nearest and dearest to alarm them, and let them know as well. Just a quick break to say, if you're enjoying this video, please take a moment of your time to click the like button and leave a comment.

I read every one of your messages. Let me know what you want us to review or talk about next in the comments below. Of course we haven't mentioned what a stylish watch this is. The range of stripes it's dizzying, and the silicon, leather, and fabrics Apple use in their official straps, are really soft and really premium. Just one thing though: guys, dudes, if you have hair on your wrists, you can always stay away from the sports band, because it catches on your hair and it is bloody painful.

Ow! It's not very well designed in that regard. but then you have a course, the leather straps which are an absolute delight. They're a little bit more expensive. They're magnetic, and they look really stylish, and they're really comfortable to wear. And then finally, let's get to the mushy stuff that I know hardcore fitness fanatics pretend not to care about, but secretly I know you do.

You'll feel special wearing this watch. The clock face choices vary from formal to my favorite one of all Woody. I usually get bemused looks from patients where they see Woody waving back at them on the wrist of a doctor, while the children that come into my clinic totally love it. They totally get it. This is simply one of the best user interfaces of any fitness watch on the market.

It is about 10 times better than any of the Fitbits, and perhaps twice as better as a Samsung Galaxy or watch is, which is actually not too bad. You can navigate to any app within seconds, or ask Siri to bring it up for you. There are essentially three inputs to the watch: the dial the small hidden button on the side, and of course, the screen. Every one of them is responsive, and has a study quality feel to it. The interface is based around three main screens: The clock face, all the apps, and list of currently opened apps.

It is this simplicity that makes the UI just beautiful. The only big downside to the watch is the battery life. On average, I was needing to recharge the series six 44 millimeter non 4G or LTE watch about every one and a half days. And this meant that if I didn't get the time set to charging just right, I couldn't wear it overnight for the sleep data, on some occasions. Series six is quite frankly, one of the best fitness watches and one of the few that's worth it's premium cost.

It is the watch I advise my family to buy. And I know that although life-threatening conditions are rare, and the right tool, obviously can not assist with every life-threatening condition, if they, or I, only ever need it once, that is enough. Beyond saving your life now, it may help protect your health into the future. And it provides useful data that you can show your doctor at your next appointment. So seriously, consider this watch.

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Source : Digitize Health