Apple Watch aid for Parkinsons’s disease patients

Smartwatch can help sufferers manage the
condition by monitoring symptoms such as shakes and tremors

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The “Movement Disorder” API will allow developers to
create apps that can track two symptoms
associated with the syndrome – tremors and dyskinesia,
or involuntary movement – continuously
throughout the day, reports Engadget. 

The new software has been built for
Apple’s ResearchKit development tool and is due for release
later this year as part of the watchOS 5 update. 

According to The Daily Telegraph, Parkinson’s patients will
be able to measure their “dexterity, balance, gait and memory” when
an Apple Watch is strapped to their wrist. 

The data gathered by the device can be sent to researchers
to help study the disease, as well as being shared with doctors,
“potentially limiting [patients’] visits to their specialist”, says
the newspaper.

Apple’s ResearchKit could be used to assist people with
other diseases and disorders, too. 

Researchers at US-based digital health
firm Cardiogram have discovered that the Apple Watch may
be able to help spot stroke symptoms, by monitoring irregular
heartbeats. 

Other studies indicate that the ResearchKit software may
be able to help doctors detect autism, melanoma and
epilepsy.