In 2017 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Launches a First-of-its-Kind Heart Study App that Works with the Apple Watch Heart Rate Sensor." Then in 2019, Apple posted a press release titled "Stanford Medicine announces results of unprecedented Apple Heart Study."

Today a new report states that a new study is now underway at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN), a group of working research hospitals in the city, could shift our approach to treatment in an area of growing concern in human health. The study, led by Dr. Heather Ross, will investigate whether the Apple Watch can provide early warnings about potentially worsening health for patients following incidents of heart failure.

The study, which is aiming to eventually span around 200 patients, and which already has a number of participants enrolled spanning ages from 25 to 90, and various demographics, will use the Apple Watch Series 6 and its onboard sensors to monitor signals, including heart rate, blood oxygen, general activity levels, overall performance during a six-minute walk test and more. Researchers led by Ross will compare this data to measurements taken from the more formal clinical tests currently used by physicians to monitor the recovery of heart failure patients during routine, periodic check-ups.

The hope is that Ross and her team will be able to identify correlations between signs they’re seeing from the Apple Watch data, and the information gathered from the proven medical diagnostic and monitoring equipment. If they can verify that the Apple Watch accurately reflects what’s happening with a heart failure patient’s health, it has tremendous potential for treatment and care.

"In the U.S., there are about six-and-a-half million adults with heart failure," Ross told TechCrunch reporter Darrell Etherington in an interview. "About one in five people in North America over the age of 40 will develop heart failure. And the average life expectancy [following heart failure] is still measured at around 2.1 years, at a tremendous impact to quality of life." For more on this, read the full TechCrunch report.