Apple gets approval for the South Korean launch of Apple Watch ECG support

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Apple Watch Afib Notification
Apple Watch Afib Notification (Image credit: u/Merrick63)

What you need to know

  • Apple has been granted approval for its ECG feature in South Korea.
  • The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has approved the Apple Watch feature.
  • It's surely only a matter of time before the feature is announced.

Apple has been granted the approval needed to push forward with the launch of its lifesaving Apple Watch ECG feature in South Korea, according to a report. That paves the way for South Korean users to get the same ECG functionality that has already saved multiple lives elsewhere in the world.

According to an ETNews report, Apple's feature was granted approval by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Apple obtained an approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) regarding its electrocardiodiagram (ECG) application. As regulations related to medical devices have begun to be eased in South Korea, it is expected that relevant companies will officially compete against one another in order to gain dominance in the "healthcare" market based on smartwatch.

Apple's ECG feature allows Apple Watch wearers to check their heart rhythm without a trip to a medical facility, although that will always be the best route to take if you're at all concerned. However, the Apple Watch's ability to alert people of a potential AFib situation has saved lives time and time again.

There's no indication when we can expect the feature to go live in South Korea, but there will surely be a new watchOS update around the corner that flips the bits required to enable it.

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.