Smart Wearables for Cardiac Monitoring
Medical devices marketed directly to consumers (DTC) are becoming increasingly more complex, capable to diagnose a variety of cardiovascular issues. Remote patient follow-up by monitoring heart rate is most popular, as it does not require complex analyses of cardiac waveforms such as ECG and PPG. Most known devices - such as Apple watch - are used for the surveillance or “spot checking” of arrhythmias. The amount and quality of data recorded and stored depend on the battery capacity, storage capabilities, size of the device and cost of the device. The management of non-atrial fibrillation arrhythmias is done using devices placed at a care provider's office during a scheduled appointment - like Holter, event recorder, and electrocardiogram (ECG) patches. Wristbands and textiles are also used by some providers. New lightweight designs such as a single-patch 12-lead ECG (SP-ECG) are also being researched . Implementation in other patient cohorts, such as ST-elevation myocardi