New article by Ann Kristin Augst and Cornelius Schubert

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).