New Apple Watch: The Worst Heart Device Ever?

Given this history of caution, the launch of the new Apple Watch Series 4 a week ago raised many an eyebrow In case you did not know, the Apple Watch Series 4 includes an FDA-approved heart monitor function that is capable of monitoring the electrocardiogram of the person who wears it Everyone expected that Apple would make every effort to tout the merits of this new device.

Typically, even when the evidence supporting a new drug or device is overwhelming, the AHA remains silent Typically, the evidence that supports a new drug or device is published in the peer-reviewed medical literature If the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in those wearing the Watch is less than 1% and if the accuracy of the device varies with the duration of the arrhythmia bursts, the number of false positive alerts is likely to be very high compared with the number of true positive alerts.

So how accurate or useful is the Apple Watch in detecting short infrequent bursts of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation in patients with no known heart disease in whom the prevalence of the arrhythmia is extremely low? We simply do not know. . Source