Apple Watch Background Pulse Oximetry Readings
I've reviewed knowledge articles:
https://support.apple.com/HT211685 & Measuring your blood oxygen levels with the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch Series 6 - Apple Support & https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211685.
I'm experiencing an anomaly similar to other users both in Apple Support forums and more widely in discussions on other sites. I'm noticing that background readings, while asleep are not consistent, and more importantly, I can't find an option to tell Apple Watch that I'd like to increase the frequency of those readings.
While I understand that increasing the frequency of background readings of SP02 would come at a cost to battery life, I'm more than willing to take that hit. There isn't an option in Apple Health Sleep, Sleep ++ doesn't involve it and the Pulse Ox app only allows me to see the reading, take a reading and see the last reading when I open it from the watch. The phone configuration for Pulse Ox similarly does not allow for configuration of background measurement frequency.
It would be massively beneficial to many users if we could configure a higher frequency of reading. If there's a beta or a research opportunity in this area I'd be happy to share my data into it.
Is there an update pending that could allow defining the frequency of background measurement?
(Note - I've benchmarked the Apple Watch 6 against Nonin Wrist Ox ((Medical Grade Recording - Patient monitor oximeter use for overnight studies) as well as Nelcor patient monitors and compared the ECG tracing delivered by the watch's lead 1 ECG to a Lifepak on lead 1. The Pulse oximetry readings on the watch are comparable. The ECG is pretty close, allowing for conductivity issues and movement distorting the waveform periodically more than in a glue-on electrode. (Meaning - I'm really impressed by the accuracy).
On the ECG front - even if it was a third-party app - I can see artifacts in the ECG tracings I've reviewed that the watch doesn't alert to. (IE Right Bundle Branch Blocks - likely PVC activity, etc - none of which were concerning even if viewed in real-time with a 12 lead in comparison) I know there's a liability concern but it would be nice to surface this - even if it's a service you could export say a week's readings to for review.
Apple Watch Series 6, watchOS 7