I found this interesting and, from what I have previously read, not surprising.
Be warned, this is still very early. And you should know that: More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the study, which was funded by Apple
I encourage anyone who is interested to actually read the full article.
It seems likely to me that whatever lead Apple might currently appear to have, other companies will be hot on their heels. This has got to be a major area for this type of technology to expand in, especially now that the phone market appears so flat.
Major study suggests Apple Watch can detect irregular heartbeat
More work needed to see if wearables can help screen for heart problems, but researchers call study encouraging
How do you feel about wearing a wireless device on your body for possibly 12 hours or more a day? It worries me but I should like someone to reassure me there is no harm associated with it. I was bought a Fitbit last Christmas and found I was having runs of fast heart beat while wearing it, although not irregular. I stopped.
I have a very inexpensive Xiaomi device - I have not been at all concerned by wearing it. But I do admit to not having looked very hard to find any reasons not to use it.
Bearing in mind that vast number of people in this study, I suspect that were there any really strong impact, it would have shown up. Trouble being, of course, how to compare wearers with non-wearers when we don't have sufficient information about non-wearers and cannot gather that information because they are non-wearers!
Bantam, what makes you so sure that none of them give accurate results, do you have something to point us at for this info? Perhaps they are useful as long as you stick with the same devise for consistency? Or are they also inconsistent from one reading to the next?
One of many studies done. I have recently chucked one in the bin because it was so inaccurate, I know because I tested it against a professional monitor at exactly the same time. A friends fitbit is also giving misleading results.
For accurate heart rate the Kardia is the one Cardiologists recommend but some people are finding that variable.
Thanks, good to know Technology is ever evolving, so maybe one day it will get there. Along with the smartphone app that can accurately monitor our thyroid hormone levels at any given moment from our fingertip
I think the Apple Watch is supposed to be getting towards medical accuracy levels unless this is fake news emanating from apple. I think heartrate monitors are good for athletic training as a reasonable guide to heart rate training, but they are not medically accurate. I used them for years.
After I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism I started to get quite odd readings heart rate not rising as expected, irregular traces etc (never had that before when I used them but they were pre GPS models) I changed model to one that worked in a totally different way and got the same strange results. I do not know if it was just malfunctioning of the devices due to poor signal or interference (they can give odd readings if services are under the pavement where you run say) or if it was indicative of CVD. My blood pressure has certainly gone seriously awry between the earlier HRM use and those two GPS ones. The battery went dead and I never bothered to get another one all those irregular readings were not very encouraging! I never went near a doctor about any of it.
I keep thinking about an apple one but it will cost an arm and a leg and be unsupported in a few years like the phones you have to run it on. I am not happy with following that extravagant, wasteful trajectory any more.
I did better performances without a HRM going by how I felt but I did have youth on my side! I no longer compete in cycling, running or triathlon, and was never of Olympiad standard anyway 😂🤣😂 just obsessed with my heart rate graphs and numbers! I do highly recommend parkrun though 😊 🏃🏽♂️ 👍🏽 🏃🏽♀️ 😉parkrun.com
I believe that the Apple Watch 4 is supposed to be a significant improvement over the Apple Watch 3 in this regard.
Aside from actual price (starting at £399 for the 4), the battery life is massively disappointing. It would be so good if it lasted a week rather than almost a day.
My Fitbit charge 2 gives the exact same heart rate reading as my blood pressure machine. My gp also took my pulse manually, whilst i was wearing my fitbit. Also exactly the same.
I don't think the issue is that wrist monitoring devices can't ever match the best. More that they do not so reliably. In the linked supplied by bantam12 they point out that during exercise (which just might be when it is most important) they can fail to detect beats reliably and then fallback onto ignoring or using software to try to make up for missed beats. That gets into difficulties very quickly.
I wonder what exacting standards medical devices must meet and in what manner they operate compared to sports watches, there has to be a big difference surely.
But your Fitbit has to cope with more than just the doctor’s surgery!
That’s where interference and signal quality can be a problem out and about and they must use different systems or less exacting methods of manufacture...I’d guess both in fact.
A medical device has to work to specific and I presume very tight parameters, an exercise gizmo does not!
I’ll read it and try to comprehend. I struggle to understand anything to technical, but would definitely be applicable to me, re the exercise failings. Thank you
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Technology is ever evolving, so maybe one day it will get there. Along with the smartphone app that can accurately monitor our thyroid hormone levels at any given moment from our fingertip 
Test levels normal, yet episodes of dizziness/irregular heartbeat
