Google is honing its health feature capabilities to detect abnormal heartbeats and general well-being. Loss of Pulse Detection is a new function for the Pixel Watch 3 that can detect whether the wearer is experiencing a loss of pulse. The firm introduced this feature during its Made by Google event on Tuesday.
A weakening or absent pulse indicates that the heart isn’t beating and pumping blood adequately, which could be a fatal medical emergency. It is brought on by poisoning, drug overdose, cardiac arrest, and other incidents. Google claims that in the event that the wearer of the Pixel Watch 3 experiences a loss of pulse, you will receive an alarm with a countdown to react.
Emergency services will receive an automated voice message with your location if you don’t answer.
Dr. Jake Sunshine, a research scientist who worked on the new feature, told CNET, “We know that a lot of the time, these events are unwitnessed, so no one is able to help or make a call on someone’s behalf.” “That was the problem we were trying to solve with this feature.”
The company is cautious to clarify that Loss of Pulse Detection was not designed for a single incident or health condition; rather, machine learning is used to classify and trigger the alarm, which is based on sensors on the Pixel Watch 3, including heart rate sensing. However, one function that could detect relatively uncommon but extremely dangerous health occurrences is Loss of Pulse Detection. Additionally, as an untreated drug overdose is one kind of catalyst for a loss of pulse event, it touches on more general public health issues, such as the rising incidence of opioid overdoses.
The new wristwatch feature appears to be aimed at “out-of-hospital” heart attacks, which is a “major killer” since it necessitates quick medical attention, according to Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist with National Jewish Health. Anything that gets emergency care to a person with missing or weak pulse activity could save a life, even though “the devil is in the details” on how it will actually work to help people (and it depends on people actually wearing the Pixel Watch 3).
“Anything that can move the need on these very lethal, high risk issues is amazing,” Freeman stated.
While fall detection and other safety features are available on other wearables, such as various Google devices and the Apple Watch, Loss of Pulse Detection on the Pixel Watch 3 will be the first of its type. Along with the release of the Pixel Watch 3, it will be offered in the UK, Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, among other European nations.
Google has not yet disclosed when or how the Food and Drug Administration would approve the discontinuation of the pulse feature, which is a requirement for usage in the United States.
Google explained that in order to develop Loss of Pulse Detection, it spoke with emergency medical services, dispatchers, and other organizations that possess expertise in handling loss of pulse incidents. Florence Thng, a Google Health Product manager, says the business also considered the possibility of issuing false alerts in addition to the all-important factor of time lost in pulse incidents. She also mentioned how crucial it is to allow for error.
“No feature is perfect,” Thng said. “We built this very thoughtfully, but even with AI, we know that Loss of Pulse will not detect every event.”
