Apple Watch's life-saving ECG feature is likely coming to Japan soon

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ECG results on Apple Watch Series 4
ECG results on Apple Watch Series 4 (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • It appears Apple Watch's ECG feature will be coming to Japan soon.
  • Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5 have been given medical approval in the country.
  • The feature has the potential to save lives and has already done so in other countries.

Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5 have both seen their ECG feature receive medical approval in Japan, according to reports. That opens the door to Apple enabling the feature on Apple Watches that are already being used as well as all those that will be sold in the future.

The approval by the Japanese Association for the Advancement of Medical Equipment came last week and was spotted by Japanese site iPhone Mania and MacRumors today.

Apple Watch Ecg App

Apple Watch Ecg App (Image credit: Apple)

In fact, the approval has already seen the Ochanomizu Department of Cardiology begin working towards a new Apple Watch Outpatient program. That will see patients use Apple Watches to record heart issues and then provide them to medical professionals for assessment.

The ECG feature is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5 devices and allows the wearable to detect whether a user might suffer from atrial fibrillation (AFib). It's also been proven to save countless lives and its arrival in more countries is great news.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.