Attended event today Raising awareness to prevent stroke - they had very high praise for AF Association

[gemsmum]

I decided to attend this event today in Preston and glad I did. There was a Doctor, Pharmacist, Cardiac Nurse and other people testing blood pressure and pulse. When I talked to the Dr and pharmacist they were very pleased to try out their Alivecor on me when I said I had AF. I had never seen an Alivecor before and thankfully I wasn't in AF. They seemed to think I was doing all the right things and on anticoagulants. They asked where I had heard of the event and I told them on the AF site, they said it was a great Association and seemed to rate it very highly. All the questions I asked I got the same answers this great forum had given me. Do you have to have an I phone to use alivecor as the gadget they had didn't seem to be a phone as it said alivecor on it and I had to hold it in my two hands. I didn't want to hold the queue up by asking them about it. I don't have an I phone just a Nokia but my daughter has one, could I download an ap from her phone onto an alivecor and use it without her phone? Sorry for being stupid about this but I am not good at phones etc as I only use mine to text and talk!!

[Finvola]

That sounds like a really worthwhile event and hopefully it has got more people thinking about stroke prevention. It's great that the AFA is so highly though of - and rightly so with the wonderful multi-function support they give. As Meadfoot wrote in another thread, why don't hospitals refer newly diagnosed AF patients to the AFA?

Regarding the AliveCor, if you check their website they give a list of compatible phones - I use mine with an iPad because the screen is nice and large. alivecor.com and click on Compatibility at the bottom of the screen.

[PeterWh in reply to Finvola]

The first time I saw my consultant EP he said to go onto the AFA website and read it and AFA to send some of the booklets. He also wrote down the website on the piece of paper on which he had drawn the heart and also some other notes re medication, etc. That was fantastic. However the shame was I was so keen on looking at the main publications, etc I missed the link to this forum and only found it some four months later when I revisited the main AFA site. It was a big shame since I would have got more information and support much earlier.

[cat55]

Hi, Sounds like it was really worth going to. Thanks for the feed back. really wish I had been able to get there. As for all the technology I am sorry but have no idea, like you i text and occasionally talk on my rather old phone. Best wishes Kath

[PeterWh in reply to cat55]

Cat. The AliveCor does not just work with the iPhone but also an number of other smart phones. You don't necessarily need to do an upgrade through your network. There are loads of places that sell second hand ones. One big chain's main lines are computer console gaming but they also do a large number of phones second-hand and all come with a year's guarantee. I have bought electronic goods (and also games / DVDs, etc) from them for my son.

[CDreamer]

Alivecor works with any smart phone so depends how old your Nokia is. My husband and I share one now, he still has AF but I don't so he uses it with the IPad, you just have to hold it close to the microphone and it picks up a signal, you get 3 bars similar to the signal indicator on any phone. I use it on my IPhone with the original Alivecor model from back in good old 2013.

I found it very useful and both my GP and EP found the traces very good.