Thanks to a team of software engineers at Apple led by Dr. Jeofrey Kibuule — Software Engineer, Health at Apple — the company has a new life-saving feature, reports Face2Face Africa.
Apple’s newly-released Apple Watch Series 6 comes with a special feature — a blood oxygen saturation monitor. The new blood oxygen app allows users to measure the oxygen level of their blood-on-demand directly from their wrist, ultimately providing them with insights into their overall wellness, per Apple.
For users, the new feature comes right on time with many COVID-19 patients having had low blood oxygen levels.
“During a blood oxygen measurement, the back crystal [under the wrist watch] shines red and green LEDs and infrared light onto your wrist,” said Apple in a statement on their website.”Photodiodes then measure the amount of light reflected back. Advanced algorithms use this data to calculate the colour of your blood. The colour determines your blood oxygen level — bright red blood has more oxygen, while dark red blood has less.”
Apple says the measurements taken with the blood oxygen app should only be “for general fitness and wellness purposes.”
Dr. Kibuule, 31, snatched up headlines, particularly in the tech world, immediately following the launch of the Apple Watch Series 6.
According to the Daily Monitor, Dr. Kibuule is among the brains behind the blood oxygen app and the team has been working in Silicon Valley for the last five years.
Thanks to his passion for technology and medicine, Dr. Kibuule, developed a lab reference app at age 23 while still in medical school. The app is known as Pocket Lab Values and helps to increase the chances of diagnoses accuracy.
Per a report, the groundbreaking app, “catapulted him [Kibuule] on a global stage to collaborate with medical professionals in Laboratory investigations for health solutions.”
The second-born son of Dr. Pascal Kibuule and Mrs. Mawanda Kibuule, of Desoto, Texas, Dr. Kibuule comes from a brilliant family. Four out of five of his family members obtained doctorates, according to Face2Face Africa. At just 18-years-old, he became the first-known Ugandan-American to graduate with a bachelor of science degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition to studying medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and earning an M.D. in 2014, he also graduated from the Honors College of Science, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) of Texas at the University of North Texas.
