Apple has launched a health study with Brigham & Women’s Hospital to understand how technology such as the iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods can improve physical and mental health, and overall wellbeing.

Available in the Research app, the study will also explore relationships between various areas of health, such as mental health’s impact on heart rate, or how sleep can influence exercise. The study is being conducted with Brigham & Women’s Hospital (www.brighamandwomens.org), a research hospital and a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

“We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health,” said cardiologist Calum MacRae, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (hms.harvard.edu). “We are excited to be part of the Apple health study, as it will continue to explore connections across different areas of health using technology that so many people carry with them every day.”

In medical research, discoveries are often limited by the number of participants who can be recruited, the amount of data that can be captured, and the duration of a given study, but Apple devices expand the possibilities.

This study builds on learnings from previous Apple research into women’s health, hearing, and heart and movement, which combined have more than 350,000 participants across the USA.

This new longitudinal virtual study aims to understand how data from technology – including Apple and third-party devices – can be used to predict, detect, monitor and manage changes in participants’ health. Additionally, researchers will explore connections across different areas of health. The study spans a number of health and disease areas, including activity, aging, cardiovascular health, circulatory health, cognition, hearing, menstrual health, mental health, metabolic health, mobility, neurologic health, respiratory health and sleep.

“Research and validation are part of the foundation of all of our work in health, supporting the innovative features we bring to our users across devices,” said Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health. “The valuable insights we’ve gained since launching the Research app have allowed us to bring innovative new tools to our users including the Vitals app on Apple Watch and Walking Steadiness on iPhone, and surface new insights in areas of health that have long been undervalued, like menstrual and hearing health. We’re thrilled to bring forward the Apple health study, which will only accelerate our understanding of health and technology across the human body, both physically and mentally.”

The study will explore changes in health and how technology can help identify important insights for future product development. When one aspect of a person’s health changes, their body can emit a signal, either physically or emotionally. Changes in health can affect one or more parts of the body, and others may affect wellbeing overall, so helping identify these changes earlier can offer a more proactive approach to health. For example, early detection of a change in hearing could reduce the risk for cognitive decline.

The study is open for enrolment through the Research app for participants who live in the USA, meet the minimum age requirements, and complete the informed consent process.

The Research app democratises how medical research is conducted by bringing together academic medical institutions, healthcare organisations, and the Apple products users already make a part of their lives.

Participation is voluntary, and participants choose which data types they’d like to share with researchers, and are able to stop sharing at any time. Apple (www.apple.com) does not have access to identifying information, such as contact information that participants provide through the Research app. Participants can withdraw from any study at any time, ending future data collection.