The latest Apple Watch health feature is one step closer to being available for Canadians
At the fall Apple event, it was revealed that the newest Apple Watch Health feature will work on the Series 9/10/11 models as well as the Apple Watch Ultra 2/3. Now that it has Health Canada approval, I’d expect the feature should roll out soon
Once the feature reaches full Canadian approval, people can turn it on, and it will gather a baseline of their blood for 30 days. Then it can run checks against that to make sure you stay within that baseline. If you start to slip out of it, the watch will then alert you that you should see a doctor and use a traditional third-party blood pressure cuff to more accurately measure your blood pressure for the next seven days.
On the Apple Support page, the company makes it clear that this is just a heads-up to go see a doctor and isn’t intended to diagnose, treat, or aid in the management of hypertension or various other heart/blood conditions. It also makes it clear that this isn’t set up to detect heart attacks.
Apple told MobileSyrup in an email: “We recently received the medical device license from Health Canada for hypertension notifications on Apple Watch. We are working through the other necessary steps and are excited to make this experience available to customers in Canada as soon as possible.”
Last year, Apple rolled out Sleep Apnea notifications for the Apple Watches mentioned above, and after being approved by Health Canada on September 27, 2024, it was cleared to go live in the country on October 24, 2024. Ideally, hypertension notifications will move through the system just as swiftly, and I suspect it will, since Apple Watch features usually have no problems in Canada. On the other hand, we’re still waiting for provincial audiologist associations to approve legislation for over-the-counter hearing aids.
Source: Health CanadaÂ
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