STAT+: Smartwatches that detect A-fib are now common. Are they accurate?

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Seven years after Apple released a smartwatch feature that can detect possible atrial fibrillation in users, similar technology has become commonplace on a range of wearables. A new meta-analysis of 26 studies of devices that detect the arrhythmia concludes that the watches “possess excellent diagnostic accuracy.”

Indeed, in the figure above you can see that most of the devices included in the review correctly identify people who do and don’t have A-fib a high percentage of the time. An ongoing concern about detection algorithms built into widely used consumer devices is the false positive rate — or people incorrectly told they may have a condition. Even a low rate magnified over millions of devices could mean headaches for your local cardiologist.

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