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Faculty of the Social Sciences
An apple a day keeps the doctor away?

New article by Ann Kristin Augst and Cornelius Schubert

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In the latest issue of the journal "POP. Kultur & Kritik", Ann Kristin Augst and Cornelius Schubert outline the ambivalent relationship of medicine respectively medical professionals towards patient-generated bodily and health data produced with the help of the Apple Watch.

With the approval of a second function as a medical device by the U.S. FDA, the Apple Watch reached a new milestone in 2024: it can now detect sleep apnoea by monitoring blood oxygen saturation. This development exemplifies the growing convergence of lifestyle wearables and medical technology.

The watch generates so-called “grey data” – health-related information produced outside professional standards, whose medical relevance remains contested. The Apple Watch thus highlights a shift: medicalisation is no longer confined to the clinic – it now happens on the wrist.

These reflections on the role of lifestyle wearables and patient-generated data in medical practice emerged as part of the research project Digi­tal Body Know­ledge. Fault Lines of Proble­ma­tic Popu­la­rity in Health Care, conducted within the Collaborative Research Centre 1472 Transformations of the Popular, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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