Medical device engineer / founder here. I'd love for the Apple Watch to fulfill Steve Blank's aims here, but there are very real clinical problems that don't automatically go away because Apple is great at industrial and UI design. The false positive risk with their a-fib detection will cause thousands of patients to ask their healthcare providers for further tests, only to find out they were fine. This isn't unlike the issue where iPhones have been inundating 911 call centers with unintentional "butt dials".
This doesn't mean that Apple won't be successful in healthcare. It's just that the main challenge isn't in creating a nicer product. The challenge is in showing a net positive impact on patient outcomes.
This doesn't mean that Apple won't be successful in healthcare. It's just that the main challenge isn't in creating a nicer product. The challenge is in showing a net positive impact on patient outcomes.