A clinical and technical perspective on using consumer wearable data for atrial fibrillation screening and post-operative monitoring.
Consumer wearables have alerted thousands of asymptomatic individuals to episodes of atrial fibrillation, leading to early anticoagulation and stroke prevention.
Consumer optical sensors are prone to motion-induced false positives that can trigger unnecessary emergency room visits and invasive cardiac catheterizations if not properly filtered.
Best practices dictate that consumer smartwatch alerts should trigger the deployment of a prescription medical-grade Holter patch before making definitive therapeutic decisions.