Apple is investing heavily in health, a central part of its strategy. It's an AI and sensor system that can warn of a heart attack 10 days in advance.

Researchers at the University of Utah Health and VA Salt Lake City Health Care System have developed an AI-powered sensor that can warn the wearer up to 10 days before a fatal heart attack occurs.

The technology uses sensors that collect information about "heart rate, heart rhythm, breathing rate, gait, sleep, body posture, and other normal activities." The information is then sent to a server, where an AI analytics platform detects whether a heart problem is likely to occur.

According to the study, "the system accurately predicted the imminent need for hospitalization more than 80% of the time. On average, this prediction occurred 10.4 days before readmission occurred (median 6.5 days).

It should be noted that this system is currently being used for people who have experienced a cardiac event, not healthy individuals. Physicians use this device (soon to enter a large clinical trial phase) to provide early warning in the event of a worsening condition, avoiding the need for costly hospitalization and, thanks to the long warning time, fatal consequences.

In theory, there is nothing to prevent Apple from implementing such a system in the Apple Watch Series 6 or the next model after that.

The Watch already tracks heart rate, heart rhythm, gait, and normal activity. It does not yet track sleep (although it can with third-party apps), breathing rate, or body posture. There are rumors that Apple will get these features in the near future and add a blood oxygen saturation sensor.

So basically, the hardware side is almost covered. The company just needs to implement the right AI trained with the right data; since the Apple Watch can already give early warning of atrial fibrillation by checking for arrhythmias, the next logical step could be to warn users of a possible heart attack days before it happens a comprehensive warning system.

Needless to say, this type of technology has the potential to save millions of lives worldwide each year. In the United States alone, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death; according to 2016 statistics, CVD was the cause of 840,768 deaths. Of those, 635,260 were due to heart disease.

But whether something like this appears in the Apple Watch Series 6 or 7, thanks to wearables, constant monitoring, and AI that feeds on vast amounts of data, preventing these and other deadly diseases could become the norm! It is clear that we are taking steady steps into the future.