Apple launches first major health study in 5 years. Here’s how you can opt in

Apple is deepening its investment in health-care research by launching a new, yearslong project called the Apple Health Study, the company announced Wednesday. 

The study will analyze how data from devices such as iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watches can monitor, manage and predict changes in users’ health. It will also explore connections between different components of health, such as how mental health affects heart rate.

The Apple Health Study is the first major health research project the company has announced since it unveiled the Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Hearing Study and the Apple Heart and Movement Study in 2019. Those projects are ongoing, and they have inspired many of the health features that Apple has introduced in recent years.

Apple rolled out a hearing test in the fall, for instance, which was developed using insights from the Apple Hearing Study, the company said. 

The new study will likely influence future product development. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously said he believes health features will be the company’s “most important contribution to mankind.”

“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,” Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, said in a statement. 

The Apple Health Study will be available through the company’s Research app, and participation is voluntary. Users will select each data type they are willing to share with researchers, and they can stop sharing or completely discontinue their participation at any time. 

Apple has no access to participants’ identifiable information, the company said.  

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a research hospital, is collaborating with Apple on the study. The project will last at least five years and may expand beyond that.

“We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health,” Dr. Calum MacRae, the principal investigator of the study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a statement.