Apple Watch to be used to monitor kids with cancer

Kids with cancer will have checks for a deadly side effect made easier in a new trial that will use a much-loved device.

Kids with cancer will have checks for a deadly treatment side effect made easier in a trial that will see them use an Apple Watch to monitor damage to their heart.

Cancer treatments take a terrible toll of the heart of children, placing them at risk of a condition called prolonged QT syndrome, which creates an irregular heart rhythm, increasing the time needed for blood to flow through the heart.

The condition is a known side effect of chemotherapy, new molecular cancer therapies as well as anti-nausea medication given during treatment.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) researcher and paediatric Oncologist Associate Professor Rachel Conyers, who is conducting the trial, said in rare cases the condition could be life-threatening.

“It can cause no problem at its least severe through to causing completely abnormal ventricle rhythms, which can cause sudden death,” A/Prof Conyers said.

Associate Professor Rachel Conyers. Picture: Graeme Furlong

Children undergoing cancer treatment currently need to have Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring of their heart twice a week in a hospital.

Forty children will take part in the trial using the ECG function on Apple Watches to see if the device can do the monitoring job instead – and remotely.

“One of the biggest bugbears of all of these treatments is it takes a long time. Some of these patients are in treatment for two years and it’s a huge impact on the families logistically, so anything that we can do telehealth-wise or digital health-wise (helps families),” A/Prof Conyers said.

An ECG app and irregular rhythm notification are now available on an Apple Watch.

To replicate the 12-lead ECG used in hospital, the watch will be placed in three separate positions on the body – the left wrist, right wrist and abdomen – to get a decent reading.

The study will measure whether the Apple Watch gives similar readings to a normal ECG and if it does, a larger trial will be set up with a view to changing medical practice.

The study will not use the watch on children aged under seven because younger children have much faster heart beats than adults.

“Newborn babies have a heart rate of about 160 beats per minute and seven-year-olds are still sitting around 140 beats per minute. So we didn’t want the actual background heart rate to interfere with how we can measure the rhythm,” A/Prof Conyers said.

The MCRI has built an app that extracts data from the watch based ECG data so doctors can retrieve PDF files of the ECG measurement.

Hospital based ECG’s cost around $100, so if patients could monitor themselves at home using a smart watch, it would not only be more convenient for the family but could save the health system money.

Apple said the ECG app is cleared by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration for use in adult patients. Paediatric use is limited to investigational use only.

Originally published as Apple Watch to be used to monitor kids with cancer