Apple Watch can serve as a mini-scanner for heart conditions, says study

The Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rhythms, according to a joint report published Thursday.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco partnered with health and heart rate app Cardiogram to collect heart rate and electrocardiogram data from 6,158 individuals. Altogether, information was gathered from 139 million heart rate measurements and 6,338 mobile electrocardiograms, starting in 2016.

The goal was to determine if the Apple Watch’s sensors can differentiate between a normal heart rhythm and atrial fibrillation (AF), which is a serious heart arrhythmia associated with an increased risk of heart failure and stroke.

In the end, the study found that the Apple Watch identified AF with 97 percent accuracy.

“While mobile technology screening won’t replace more conventional monitoring methods, it has the potential to successfully screen those at an increased risk and lower the number of undiagnosed cases of AF,” said Gregory M. Marcus, director of clinical research for the Division of Cardiology at UCSF, in a press release.

Via: TechCrunch

Cardiogram for Apple Watch can be download for free here.