Apple has for years promised that its devices can help people live healthier, but it has so far produced little concrete evidence of this benefit. Many of the company’s health tools are consumer features without strong ties to the health care system, so there often isn’t a health care outcome to measure as proof.
Nevertheless, Apple has embarked on several systematic studies exploring how its devices might be used to more directly improve health conditions, and after several years, one such effort is beginning to bear fruit: a large digital asthma study launched in collaboration with Anthem, the insurer that has since changed its name to Elevance Health. The companies are now beginning to release data from the study, which hints that the tool could help the millions of people who struggle with asthma avoid the worst outcomes of exacerbations.
Announced during an Apple keynote in September 2020, the 900-participant study aimed to use Apple’s sleek devices to make a dent in the widespread asthma problem — and prove the results using a gold standard randomized control trial. The intervention works by using devices and an app to encourage people to regularly reflect on symptoms and triggers and to equip them to better respond to flare-ups. New preliminary data, which is being presented this weekend at an American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology conference, suggest the app helped reduce emergency department visits among people in the study on Medicaid. The control group saw an average of 0.58 visits per person per year, compared to 0.33 visits for people who used the management program. The authors calculate that one ED visit is avoided for every four Medicaid enrollees who use the intervention.
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