November 3, 2015 – EpiWatch

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead:  The Apple watch may help people with epilepsy, Elizabeth Tracey reports

The Apple watch is more than a status symbol, a new study underway at Johns Hopkins proves.  It is a critical tool underpinning efforts to understand seizures in people with epilepsy better, with an eye toward helping keep seizures under control.  Gregory Krauss, one of the study’s lead investigators, describes attributes of the watch being utilized.

Krauss: The watch has a number of sensors on it, accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, it has a computer so you can interact with it.  It seemed ideal for studying epilepsy.  We thought we could probably devise a seizure detector using the watch and we’re collecting data to do that. So right now we have an app that collects data when patients have an aura and activate it or caregivers activate it.  For 10 minutes during a seizure it would record all those signals.  :27

Krauss says such data should enable researchers to develop an actual seizure detector down the road.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.