Apple Announces The Launch Of Three New Health Studies In The Research App

Apple today announced the launch of its new Research app, users will be now be able to enroll in three landmark health studies — the Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Heart and Movement Study, as well as the Apple Hearing Study.

“Today marks an important moment as we embark on research initiatives that may offer incredible learnings in areas long sought after by the medical community,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “Participants on the Research app have the opportunity to make a tremendous impact that could lead to new discoveries and help millions lead healthier lives.”

The new Research app, is now available for downloaded today from the App Store, where one can use their iPhone and Apple Watch to contribute to potentially groundbreaking medical discoveries with useful data around movement, heart rate and noise levels, all can be captured during everyday activities, such as taking a walk to attending a concert.

Apple's descriptions of the Apple Women’s Health Study:

There is a great opportunity to better understand menstrual cycles and how they relate to women’s health. The Apple Women’s Health Study is the first long-term study of this scale and scope; it aims to advance the understanding of menstrual cycles and their relationship to various health conditions, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), infertility, osteoporosis and menopausal transition. Conducted in partnership with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the study will use iPhone and Apple Watch to collect study-specific data like cycle tracking information, and use monthly surveys to understand each participant’s unique menstrual experience. The study seeks to analyze the impact of certain behaviors and habits on a wide breadth of reproductive health topics.

Apple's descriptions of the Apple Heart and Movement Study

Measuring the quality and quantity of a person’s movement can provide insight into their current and future health status. The Apple Heart and Movement Study is a broad study of factors that affect heart health and potentially cause deterioration in mobility or overall well-being, in an effort to promote healthy movement and improved cardiovascular health. Users can participate by using the Research app on their iPhone and recording workouts on their Apple Watch Series 1 or later. With Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the American Heart Association, Apple is taking on this study to understand how certain mobility signals and details about heart rate and rhythm could serve as potential early warning signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), heart disease or declining mobility, to build new interventions that could help consumers lead longer, healthier and more active lives.

Apple's descriptions of the Apple Hearing Study

The impact of sound exposure on hearing health and stress levels over time is not well understood. The Apple Hearing Study will collect headphone usage and environmental sound exposure data through iPhone and the Noise app on Apple Watch, in order to explore how both can impact hearing over time. Alongside the University of Michigan, the study will also determine how long-term sound exposure can impact stress levels and cardiovascular health. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups within the study to assess if receiving Health app notifications when loud sound exposure is detected can motivate users to modify their listening behaviors. Data from the study will also be shared with the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Make Listening Safe initiative to raise awareness of safe listening practices with the aim of reducing hearing loss.

As for the requirements, the health studies is available to anyone who have an Apple Watch Series 1 or later that's running on watchOS 6.1 or later and an iPhone 6s or later devices that's running on iOS 13.2 or later. As with other services it offers to consumers, privacy is built into the Research app, so carefully created that data will only be shared with the chosen studies when the user approves.