Patently Apple has covered a number of Apple patents over the years regarding their work on blood pressure cuff systems (01, 02, 03 and 04). Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published another two patent applications from Apple on this area of healthcare. The second patent is titled "Adjustment Or Weighting Of Blood Pressure in Response to One or More Biophysical or Environmental Conditions." This patent relates to determining a health parameter (e.g., a blood pressure), a movement, or an activity of a wearer of a monitoring device (e.g., a blood pressure measurement device).

Apple's patent notes that determining an accurate blood pressure typically requires a person to assume a particular posture, position, or other conditions. For example, a person may have to sit with their feet on the ground, with their back straight and the arm on which a blood pressure cuff is placed at heart level, while not talking. If a person departs from these guidelines, a blood pressure obtained by a blood pressure measurement device may be inaccurate.

However, if a person's blood pressure is to be monitored periodically and continuously (e.g., at regular or irregular intervals throughout the day or night), instructing the person to repeatedly pause what they are doing and meet a set of conditions (e.g., conform to a particular posture or position) can be very intrusive and disruptive.

Apple's patent covers systems, devices, methods, and apparatus that improve the user experience for an always on, and even temporarily donned, blood pressure measurement devices.

The systems, devices, methods, and apparatus obtain sensor outputs from sensors other than those that are used to obtain a blood pressure, and adjust or weight a determined blood pressure for one or more conditions under which a blood pressure is determined.

A blood pressure may be adjusted (e.g., corrected or compensated) for conditions such as, the various ways in which a person may position or wear a blood pressure cuff; movements that a person might make or activities that a person might engage in while sensors are operated to determine a blood pressure; a person's position or posture; a person's arm length or posing; a position or orientation of a person's arm with respect to their heart; whether a person is talking; a person's temperature; and so on. A blood pressure may also be weighted based on the above conditions. The weighting may indicate a confidence level in the blood pressure being accurate, or result in the blood pressure being weighted less (or even discarded) when used to determine an average blood pressure, making a diagnosis, or recommending next steps to be taken by the person, an application, or a medical professional.

In some cases, some or all of the sensors that are used to determine one or more conditions under which a blood pressure is obtained may be incorporated into a blood pressure measurement device. In some cases, some or all of the sensors that are used to determine the one or more conditions under which a blood pressure is obtained may be incorporated into other electronic devices, such as an electronic watch or health/fitness tracking device, a mobile phone (e.g., a smartphone) or other handheld portable device, one or more earbuds or a headset, a voice-controlled virtual assistant, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, and a smart appliance (e.g., a refrigerator, a thermostat, etc.), and so on.

The sensors that are used to determine one or more conditions under which a blood pressure is obtained may determine or infer biophysical characteristics of a person whose blood pressure is being taken, determine whether the person is moving, infer what activity the person is engaged in, and so on.

Apple's patent FIGS. 2A and 2B below illustrate an example wearable blood pressure measurement device worn on an arm of a user, with the arm of the user in different positions. More specifically, FIG. 2B shows the user's arm (#206) extending in a more or less horizontal (or outward) position. In this position, the user's hand and elbow, as well as the blood pressure cuff of the device #200, are at about a same elevation as the user's heart #216. These inferences assume, however, that the user is standing or sitting in an upright position. If the user 208 were instead lying flat, different inferences may be drawn.

For those in the medical field that want to explore more of the details, review patent application US 20230068620 A1 here.