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Apple Watch Gets UAE Approval For Sleep Apnea Detection

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention has given the green light to the feature which monitors interruptions in breathing patterns.

Published

2 years ago

October 25, 2024

Nour Nasir

Apple

Apple Watch users in the United Arab Emirates now have access to a new health feature designed to detect potential signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea after Apple secured marketing authorization from the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention.

Sleep apnea is a serious condition where breathing is repeatedly interrupted during sleep, and often remains undiagnosed. Affecting an estimated one billion people globally, if untreated, sleep apnea can lead to health complications, including hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular issues.

This new detection feature utilizes the Apple Watch’s accelerometer to monitor wrist movements associated with interruptions in breathing. These “Breathing Disturbances” are analyzed by a specific Apple Watch metric, allowing users to view data in the Health app on their iPhone or iPad.

While occasional disturbances are normal, Apple’s monitoring focuses on patterns that occur frequently over multiple nights, as they may indicate sleep apnea. The app classifies breathing patterns as either elevated or not elevated, and users can track their breathing disturbance history over one-month, six-month, or one-year periods.

Also Read: How To Clean Your Apple Watch Like A Pro

Every 30 days, Apple’s system analyzes the accumulated data for signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea. If it identifies consistent patterns, the user receives a notification advising them to consult a healthcare provider. The notification includes an educational section about sleep apnea risks, as well as a PDF summary containing three months of relevant data, which users can share with their doctors for further discussion.

The Sleep Apnea Notification algorithm was developed with advanced machine learning and a large dataset of clinical sleep apnea studies. Apple validated the feature in an extensive clinical trial, one of the largest conducted for sleep apnea detection technology. In this study, each participant identified by the algorithm as having a breathing disturbance showed at least mild sleep apnea.

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A Three-Clinic Network Bets Dubai Is Ready For Longevity Medicine

Longevium has enlisted nearly 100 clinicians and created an AI platform in a bid to sell biological-age tracking as a medicine, not a wellness service.

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2026

Dana Saadeh

a three-clinic network bets dubai is ready for longevity medicine

Dubai has been busily creating the scaffolding for a longevity industry, including a dedicated regulatory authority and a health market deep enough to sustain it. Now the clinics are arriving.

Longevium, a longevity clinic network, has opened three locations across the city: a flagship at Triple Seven Mall on Jumeirah 3, and branches in Jumeirah Lake Towers and Jumeirah Village Circle. Together they house a multidisciplinary team of nearly 100 physicians and specialists offering what the company bills as “a measurable medical system for longevity”.

longevity dubai clinic launch

The pitch is that longevity medicine should look less like a wellness menu and more like continuous clinical care. Each patient’s biological age assessment, laboratory results, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic markers, and lifestyle data feed into a single profile, with a proprietary AI platform helping physicians track progress and adjust protocols against the patient’s own biomarkers.

“Healthy aging must be approached clinically through diagnostics, biomarkers, physician supervision, longitudinal tracking, and protocols tailored to the individual,” said Dr. Ksenia Butova, Longevium’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to help patients understand their health trajectory before disease develops, and then actively change that trajectory”.

The treatment list spans peptide-based protocols, exosome therapies, stem cell approaches, GLP-1 metabolic optimization, hormone balance programs, cardiovascular prevention, and regenerative aesthetics — a model built for the entrepreneurs, executives, and international patients the clinic says want measurable results rather than generic wellness. A signature offering, Longevity Day, compresses biomarker testing, ultrasound and vascular imaging, specialist consultations, IV therapy, and a personalized optimization roadmap into a single three-hour visit.

Also Read: Dubai Certifies The World’s First Purpose-Built Air Taxi Vertiport

“Here, longevity, biotechnology, AI, prevention, and regenerative medicine are converging into a single ecosystem,” said Butova. “This is why Longevium was built in Dubai, and why we believe the UAE can become a global reference point for longevity medicine”.

The emirate established the Dubai Longevity Authority in 2026 to oversee its longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, and the Dubai Health Authority reported insured beneficiaries exceeding 4.9 million in 2025, up around 6.5%, with insurance claims reaching approximately 49.6 million, up around 13.5%.