heart arrhythmia
Wearable mHealth Device Detects Abnormal Heart Rhythms Earlier
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Caption: Woman wearing a Zio patch
Credit: Adapted from JAMA Network Summary Video
As many as 6 million Americans experience a common type of irregular heartbeat, called atrial fibrillation (AFib), that can greatly increase their risk of stroke and heart failure [1]. There are several things that can be done to lower that risk, but the problem is that a lot of folks have no clue that their heart’s rhythm is out of whack!
So, what can we do to detect AFib and get people into treatment before it’s too late? New results from an NIH-funded study lend additional support to the idea that one answer may lie in wearable health technology: a wireless electrocardiogram (EKG) patch that can be used to monitor a person’s heart rate at home.
