How far is the smart watch that holds high the banner of health and professional medical diagnosis?

China Business Daily (reporter Jiao Likun trainee reporter Zhao Yiru) With the continuous iterative upgrade, the health monitoring functions of major brands of smart watches are claimed to be more and more "professional", how far away are they from professional medical diagnosis?

Increasingly "healthy" watches

On November 17, Huawei's all-scenario smart life new product launch conference was held, and Huawei WATCH GT3 and Huawei WATCH GT Runner were all unveiled. It is reported that the Huawei WATCH GT3 smart watch is equipped with TruSeen 5.0 + octal channel heart rate monitoring technology, which makes heart rate monitoring more accurate, and adds plateau blood oxygen monitoring to provide risk assessment of altitude sickness. Huawei WATCH GT Runner is Huawei's first professional running watch, with the running power index as the core, providing users with scientific running evaluation and training guidance.

At present, most of the wearable devices represented by smart watches on the market have health monitoring functions. For example, Apple Watch Series 7 has heart rate monitoring, sleep recording, blood oxygen level measurement and other functions; OPPO Watch 2 ECG version has millisecond-level ECG detection, irregular heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring and snoring risk assessment and other functions. The official website of Honor said that the GS3 is about to launch a watch equipped with an 8-channel heart rate AI engine and an 8-channel PPG heart rate monitoring module.

"Now smart wearable devices have developed to not only monitor the user's heart rate, sleep quality, etc., but also monitor fine indicators such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood oxygen." The generation and improvement of these health function algorithms can monitor the user's physical data when the user uses the smart wearable device, and then use the big data cloud computing as a technical support to compare and analyze the user's health data, and conduct risk assessment of the user's health status changes, so as to detect suspicious diseases as soon as possible. Li Fenzhenzi, a researcher at Zhongyan Puhua, told the China Business Daily reporter.

Is it an alternative to a professional medical diagnosis?

The health monitoring functions of smart watches are becoming more and more powerful and are moving closer to more and more professional directions.

For example, Huawei's WATCH GT2 Pro ECG model has obtained the State Drug Administration's Class II medical device registration certificate and has an ECG collection function. Similarly, the OPPO Watch ECG version has also been registered and certified by the State Drug Administration for Class II medical devices, which can assist in a variety of heart diseases and heart rhythm abnormalities. In October this year, Huawei announced that the first medical-grade wrist blood pressure detection device has passed clinical trials and obtained the State Drug Administration's Class II medical device registration certificate, with medical-grade blood pressure detection capabilities.

In the case of the "endorsement" of the State Drug Administration's Class II medical device registration certificate and the gradual improvement of professional performance, how high is the authority of the relevant monitoring and detection functions of smart watches, and can it replace professional medical diagnosis?

Huawei customer service told the China Business Daily reporter: "The data monitored by the equipment can be used as a reference, but it cannot be used as a valid medical certificate. Medical vouchers are issued by regular hospitals. ”

"From a professional point of view, smart wearable devices are very helpful in detecting arrhythmias and monitoring the heart's electrical activity. However, for the diagnosis of symptoms, professional testing equipment and professional medical personnel are still needed. Ye Qiang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Cardiology of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, told the China Business Daily reporter, "At present, the wearable ECG monitoring equipment purchased by ordinary people is mostly a single-lead ELECTROCardiogram, which is susceptible to various external signal interferences, such as poor skin adhesion, interference from surrounding electronic devices, etc., resulting in a decline in diagnostic accuracy, so from a professional point of view, for the diagnosis of abnormal cardiac electrical activity, more professional equipment and medical personnel are needed to help." For example, for screening for atrial fibrillation, European cardiology recommends wearable ECG devices, but the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation requires a standard 12-lead ECG or a single-lead ECG that records for more than 30 seconds. ”

Ye Qiang said that people are willing to buy smart wearable devices with ECG monitoring functions, usually for two purposes, the first may be to use the product as a health monitoring device, to obtain their own ECG data to assess whether the heart is healthy, or there may be symptoms or risk factors of heart discomfort itself, so it is necessary to use this device for monitoring and forensics. The second case is that such devices are used as follow-up and monitoring of the therapeutic effect of the disease. Some people, after receiving medication or surgery for cardiovascular disease, need to monitor the effectiveness of treatment through such devices, as well as whether the disease has recurred.

"Wearable intelligent ECG devices are an important method for the early diagnosis of future heart diseases, and reducing the disability and fatality rate of cardiovascular diseases is the future direction of medical development." However, at present, the technology is still being continuously improved, and the general public still needs to communicate with professionals in a timely and effective manner in the process of use to ensure the correct interpretation of the recorded data and avoid misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis. Ye Qiang told the China Business Daily reporter.

Why mobile phone companies layout the health field

In fact, all mobile phone companies are strengthening cooperation with professional medical teams to enhance the medical authority of wearable devices and deepen the layout of the health industry.

Among them, Huawei and the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association launched the "Healthy Clover" function, which includes three dimensions of exercise, sleep, and emotional management to visualize the health status. Previously, 301 Hospital quickly built a heart health research App based on HUAWEI Research, and cooperated with Huawei's smart wearable device high-performance heart rate sensor to provide users with one-stop integrated management and atrial fibrillation risk prediction services such as early beats, screening, diagnosis, tracking, and follow-up.

At the OPPO Developer Conference held in October this year, OPPO said that OPPO Health Laboratory and Fuwai Healthy Lifestyle Medical Center will launch a collaborative project on the "Clinical Application Effect of Lifestyle Interventions in Hypertension and Normal High-Value Blood Pressure Populations" on the framework of the Health Research Kit. At the same time, OPPO announced its health strategy for the first time and said that it would become an important promoter and contributor to the industry within three years.

On November 18, Hanxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd., an affiliate of Xiaomi, added foreign investment to Beijing Shennapusi Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of 10%. According to the official website of Beijing Shennapusi Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd., the company is committed to the research and development and manufacture of intelligently empowered medical-grade smart wearable devices for the field of AI+ medical health.

Why have mobile phone giants increased their layout in the field of health? "Due to the significant acceleration of the aging process of China's population and the uneven supply of medical resources, the demand for mobile medical treatment is increasing day by day. Coupled with the rapid development of mobile Internet and big data, it provides the foundation for the development of mobile health, which makes smart wearable manufacturers find business opportunities in the field of health. Li Fenzhenzi said.

"Because of the progress of 5G and the Internet of Things, smart wearable devices have the ability of real-time monitoring and network analysis, and the resulting health big data is very imaginative, relative to finance, consumption, travel data, may have more extensible value, the market is very attractive." Ma Jihua, a senior analyst in the telecommunications industry, told China Business Daily reporter, "Huawei and OPPO have set up health laboratories in a high profile, and many other giants are also laying out the field of big health." Because the industry terminal is far from modular, the big health needs to combine soft and hard, and needs to independently develop chips, sensors, and algorithms. These are all huge investments and require long-term continuous investment, which also means that the industry barriers will be relatively high, which is the blue ocean of the intelligent industry that can be seen now. ”

"Smart wearable devices collect a large number of user health data information and behavior habits in real time through the application of big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things and other technologies, and have become an important entrance to smart medical information in the future." Li Fenzhenzi said.