Stanford University to hand up to 1,000 Apple Watch devices for new healthcare program

Stanford University has launched a new program that offers faculty members and instructors up to a thousand Apple Watches to investigate how the device can be used to advance healthcare. In addition to providing Apple’s smartwatch, the center will award $10,000 to the winning project for one year, starting in April.

“We are particularly interested in high impact projects that will positively influence the selected study population and/or clinical workflow,” reads the Center for Digital Health website.

Under the terms of the program, Apple’s device must be integrated into an overall program or study design where its sensing capability (things like measuring one’s activity and heart rate or simply reading raw accelerometer data) is used to measure the progress of an endpoint relevant to the study population.

They’re also accepting submissions for solutions that use the communication and notification features of the device in order to drive behavior change. Any submitted solutions must use an iOS app with an Apple Watch extension or design a workflow where push notifications can be delivered to Apple Watch.

To kick off the launch, Stanford is currently accepting proposals for programs seeking to use Apple’s wearable device in healthcare. Submissions are open to a select group of Stanford faculty members.

The submission deadline for proposals closes on February 26.

The project duration is set to last one year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated his company’s focus on helping advance healthcare in an interview with Bloomberg last year. “The holy grail of the watch is being able to monitor more and more of what’s going on in your body. If you could have a device that knew so much about you, it would be incredible, and would extend life and extend quality,” said Cook.

Source: Stanford University