Dr. Watch Will See You Now
Time|December 17,2018 - Double Issue

This Gadget Can Monitor Your Heart And Warn You Of Trouble. Why Apple And The Rest Of Silicon Valley See Your Health As Their Next Frontier—and What You Should Know About The Risks And Benefits

Alex Fitzpatrick
Dr. Watch Will See You Now

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BLACK PANTHER WERE ABOUT to defend Earth from the villain Thanos when Kevin Foley first noticed something was wrong. Foley, a 46-year-old information-technology worker from Kyle, Texas, was heading into the theater to see Avengers: Infinity War when he realized he was having trouble breathing normally. The sensation struck again during another movie the following night, but more severe this time. Once the credits on the second film rolled, Foley took action: he looked at his wristwatch. It was a bigger step than you might imagine, because Foley was wearing an Apple Watch equipped with medical sensors and experimental software to track basic functions of his heart. And the watch was worried. It had, according to the display, detected signs of an irregular heartbeat.

Before long, Foley was in an emergency room, where doctors hooked him up to an electrocardiogram (ECG), which showed that he was in atrial fibrillation, or AFib, an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke and other potentially fatal complications. Foley spent the next few days in the hospital while doctors worked to return him to a normal sinus heart rhythm—eventually turning to a procedure called electrical cardioversion to shock his heart back to normalcy. Foley is doing fine now. But he believes that, if not for the warning on his watch, he might not have sought help in time. “I would have never known,” he says.

This story is from the December 17,2018 - Double Issue edition of Time.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the December 17,2018 - Double Issue edition of Time.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TIMEView All
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Pioneers
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Pioneers

America Ferrera Kennedy Odede Ophelia Dahl Sharon Lavigne Sam Tsemberis Lesley Lokko Stuart Orkin Asma Khan Priyamvada Natarajan Yoshua Bengio + more

time-read
10 mins  |
April 29, 2024
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Icons
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Icons

Taraji P. Henson Jenni Hermoso Michael J. Fox Sofia Coppola Burna Boy Thelma Golden Elliot Page Mark Cuban Kylie Minogue Hayao Miyazaki + more

time-read
10+ mins  |
April 29, 2024
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Innovators
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Innovators

Jensen Huang Rachel Hardeman Akiko Iwasaki Shawn Fain Maya Rudolph Dominique Crenn Marina Tabassum Dave Ricks Tory Burch Siya Kolisi + more

time-read
10+ mins  |
April 29, 2024
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Leaders
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Leaders

Yulia Navalnaya Ajay Banga William Ruto Rena Lee Andriy Yermak Donald Tusk William Lai William Burns Narges Mohammadi Marina Silva + more

time-read
10+ mins  |
April 29, 2024
The 100 Most Influential People in the World -Titans
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World -Titans

Patrick Mahomes A'ja Wilson Kelly Ripa Donna Langley Satya Nadella Beth Ford Jack Antonoff Kelley Robinson Larry Ellison Max Verstappen + more

time-read
10+ mins  |
April 29, 2024
The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Artists
Time

The 100 Most Influential People in the World - Artists

Dua Lipa James McBride Da'Vine Joy Randolph Alex Edelman Dev Patel Lauren Groff Alia Bhatt Jeffrey Wright 21 Savage Jenny Holzer + more

time-read
10 mins  |
April 29, 2024
William McRaven The retired admiral who took down Osama bin Laden on why U.S. leadership matters, the AI race, and what he's going to do with $50 million
Time

William McRaven The retired admiral who took down Osama bin Laden on why U.S. leadership matters, the AI race, and what he's going to do with $50 million

You recently received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, with $50 million to give to charities of your choice. How are you planning to use it? Almost all of this is going to be focused on veterans and their families the children who've lost fathers and mothers in combat. And the other area is mental health for servicemen. What don't the VA and the military health care system cover?

time-read
2 mins  |
April 08, 2024
The real Carmichael show
Time

The real Carmichael show

JERROD CARMICHAEL HAD BEEN a famous comedian for almost a decade when he dropped his average-dude persona and started being real. In his 2022 special, Rothaniel, he came out as gay, speaking with rueful humor about internalized homophobia and his fractured relationship with his devoutly Christian mother. It was a creative turning point as well as a personal one.

time-read
1 min  |
April 08, 2024
A jumbled parable with a glowing core
Time

A jumbled parable with a glowing core

EVEN WHEN A MOVIE IS FAR FROM PERFECT, YOU CAN tell when a director has poured his soul into it. Dev Patel's directorial debut Monkey Man-he's also the movie's star-is trying too hard, and for too much. It wants to be a political allegory, a somber study of a man haunted by childhood trauma, a clarion blast of inspiration for downtrodden humans seeking to summon strength, and last but hardly least, a brutally exhilarating action entertainment.

time-read
3 mins  |
April 08, 2024
The pacifist gospel of Civil War
Time

The pacifist gospel of Civil War

OUTSIDE OF ATLANTA, A CREAKY WHITE VAN WEAVED down a highway lined with abandoned cars. A helicopter sat in the parking lot of a charred JCPenney. Armed guards in military fatigues patrolled checkpoints. A death squad dumped corpses into a mass grave. Artillery boomed in the offing.

time-read
5 mins  |
April 08, 2024