Smartwatches on the market today are advertised as tools for health monitoring, but are they accurate? Clinic workers are seeing an influx of patients claiming to have atrial fibrillation or an irregular heartbeat, as told by their smartwatch. Many of these claims were false positives. A research team at the U-M Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center developed the Verily Study Watch, a prescription wristwatch that continuously monitors the wearer’s heart rhythm and uses a unique algorithm to detect Afib specifically. The device would be the first clinical-grade, diagnostic wrist-worn device for long-term Afib monitoring.
