Canada Approves watchOS 9's AFib History Feature

AFib History, one of watchOS 9's new health features, this week received regulatory approval in Canada, seemingly making it the first country to do so outside the United States ahead of the release of watchOS 9 later this year.

watchos 9 afib history
AFib History allows individuals diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to view an estimate of how frequently their heart is in this type of arrhythmia, according to Apple. The feature is intended for individuals aged 22 years or older who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Health Canada yesterday approved the AFib History for both the Apple Watch and the iPhone, regulatory filings show. Canada appears to be the second country to approve the new feature after the United States, where it received FDA clearance after being validated in a clinical study. Last month, Apple said the average difference in weekly measurements between the Apple Watch and an FDA-cleared reference device was less than one percent.

The AFib History feature could prove useful when a patient receives an ablation treatment for chronic atrial fibrillation, but the treatment is unsuccessful at first attempt and the patient continues to experience atrial fibrillation.

Upon previewing watchOS 9, Apple said that AFib History is not currently approved in all countries or regions, so availability of the feature will likely be limited at launch. That being said, there is still time for other regulatory authorities to approve AFib History before the official release of watchOS 9 later this year.

Thanks, Jen!

Tag: Canada
Related Forum: Apple Watch

Top Rated Comments

TVreporter Avatar
23 months ago
Just in time for the heart attacks that will follow when Apple announces the Canadian prices of the next iPhones and iMacs.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BootsWalking Avatar
23 months ago

Very pathetic ways of thinking. How sad. Attempts to save lives gets turned into the usual Apple hate and cynicism. Atrial fib can cause thrombus to form in the left atrium which can then break loose, travel to the left ventrical, out the aorta, up the carotid arteries, causing a huge stroke and a life of misery, if you survive. Hard to believe people like to joke about this. Actually, it's not hard to believe anymore.
I can't speak for the other poster you quoted but mine was in obvious jest. I praised the feature. Perhaps stop seeking out opportunities to be outraged.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BootsWalking Avatar
23 months ago
Awesome feature that will help a lot of people manage their heart health. Apple benefits as well because facilitating health and longevity guarantees your customers will stay alive to buy more of your products ?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
_Spinn_ Avatar
23 months ago
Very cool to see that Apple is working to get additional health features approved.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sir_Macs_A_Lot Avatar
23 months ago
Apple has come a long way in providing Health related apps on the Watch that are very useful. Don't stop now. I can see reliable blood sugar monitoring just over the horizon.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HiVolt Avatar
23 months ago
Holy crap its a miracle we'll get a launch day feature thats typically reserved for USA.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iPhone 15 Pro FineWoven

Apple Reportedly Stops Production of FineWoven Accessories

Sunday April 21, 2024 6:03 am PDT by
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...