Apple announced its watchOS 2 on September 9. One of the major selling points behind the Apple Watch has always been combining the smartwatch idea alongside health and fitness tracking. Is this selling point panning out? What technological trends are seen in the healthcare industry and mobile devices — and are they really making a difference for doctors and patients?

Amidst the buzz, here is a sampling of some Apple Watch apps that actually might be revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

AirStrip’s Sense4Baby App: High-risk pregnancies

The Sense4Baby, acquired by AirStrip in 2014, is a system that enables a healthcare provider to monitor a patient remotely using the Apple Watch. Instead of visiting a costly or distant medical center, mothers can be monitored in their own homes or at an office near them. The doctor can then read non-stress test data with an Internet connection.

According to Airstrip’s CEO, Alan Portela, 20 percent of pregnancies in the United States are high-risk pregnancies. High-risk mothers have to go to physicians many more times than other mothers or stay in bed rest. With Sense4Baby, mothers could have the potential to stay at home much more often and get their checks done with the Apple Watch Sense4Baby app. The app can even differentiate between the mother’s heartbeat and the baby’s.

“Our intention is to bring that experience and that level of care to every mom throughout the country and throughout the world,” said Portela. In fact, Sense4Baby just signed a contract with a seller in Africa that is going to use the app to help monitor mothers — many of whom deliver through midwives in remote locations.

HealthTap’s DocNow App: Personalized access to thousands of doctors

While many Americans search Google to figure out their heath problems, the power to ask an actual doctor personalized healthcare questions without leaving the comfort of their own homes is at their very fingertips. As HealthTap, Inc. website states they’ve “created the world’s most comprehensive knowledge base of doctor-created personal health information.” And HealthTap has come to the Apple Watch in the form of its DocNow app.

DocNow has handpicked more than 72,000 doctors to quickly answer health concerns, give health tips, and prescribe medications — all from the Apple Watch. Patients can talk to a doctor via video for fees as little as $2.99 per minute. With a patient’s permission, comprehensive health information can be stored on DocNow for completely safe, personalized treatment.

For doctors, DocNow is a helpful tool as well. U.S.-licensed doctors admitted to the HealthTap Medical Expert Network can now review medications, treatments and find advice from other doctors on best practices. They will also be able to easily track their appointments and hours.

DexCom’s Share2 App: Continuous glucose monitor system

Imagine having one less thing to worry about as a diabetes patient by tracking glucose levels in a smooth manner. For many, continuous glucose monitoring has been one of the most significant breakthroughs in diabetes management in the past 40 years, and Dexcom Inc.’s Share2 app may be the next helpful step in this monitoring.

Dexcom’s Share2 app allows users of its Continuous Glucose Monitor System to monitor and track everything right from their Apple Watch. The app will not only let users view their own glucose information, but also invite others — parents or caregivers, for example — to monitor the data from their own Apple Watch. This is a revolutionary tool that implements technology for monitoring diabetes.

How does it work? An extremely thin wire with a Dexcom sensor is placed just under the skin. Bluetooth is used to send data via a transmitter to the Dexcom CGM receiver. Data is collected and sent to the watch through the Share2 app. Glucose trends can be seen in graphs and shared with friends or family (which can be followed by using the Dexcom Follow app on the iPhone or Watch). This app could help showcase the important ways technology can be used to fight diabetes.

Vocera’s First Clinical Communications App: Life-critical communications in hospitals

According to the Journal of Patient Safety, around 440,000 patients die each year from preventable errors in hospitals — and many of these errors are communications-related. Vocera Communications, Inc.’s mission is to provide real-time, intelligent communication solutions for life-critical environments in healthcare. The Vocera Communication Platform enables physicians, patients and staff to quickly and efficiently reach the right people at the right time in large, chaotic hospital settings.

With the Apple Watch, Vocera is taking its Communication Platform to the next level. According to Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera, “The Apple Watch offers a revolutionary new way for us to efficiently deliver critical information to the right person, at the right time, in the right place.”

The First Clinical Communications app will allow users to respond to life-threatening situations by communicating rapidly through calls, alerts and messages from other care team members. The app helps staff manage availability so that message can be sent more efficiently. Panic calls in “man-down” emergency situations can be initiated to improve staff and patient safety in volatile situations. Communication will be much faster, fluid and flexible — enabling doctors and staff members to do their jobs and react quickly to the always-changing environment of a hospital.

The future of technology and healthcare

Alan Portela, Airstrip’s CEO, believes implementing technological tools like the Apple Watch and Sense4Baby app and others is going to be essential for the coming wave of patients. Portela noted that 50 percent of Americans have at least one chronic disease. The ability to actively manage the patient population is becoming increasingly important, and hospitals and companies will need to learn to listen and put that clinical data in motion at faster and faster paces. Finding people in the danger zone before they become critical is more essential than ever.

“The future is now,” said Portela. “Unless we bring in this type of technology, we are going to have a significant challenge.” For now, the partnership between healthcare, technology like the Apple Watch and apps seems to be making leaps and bounds — with the intention of helping millions of patients worldwide.

Image credit LWYang, Flickr, CC BY 2.0