The results of a large-scale study involving 455,000 people shared this week showed that Fitbit has the ability to detect atrial fibrillation. But like its peers, it still faces challenges in clinical implementation.
Fitbit gets FDA approval Last year its atrial fibrillation (AFib) function used a built-in ECG sensor to detect potential arrhythmias, although it could not provide a diagnosis.
Researcher at Mass General Brigham Enrollment started last year The Fitbit Heart Study is a large virtual clinical trial designed to test the ability of Fitbit to detect AFib compared with ECG patches. About 1% of participants received irregular heart rhythm notifications from their devices, or about 4,700 people, According to the abstract Presented at a scientific meeting of the American Heart Association.
From there, people were instructed to schedule visits from telemedicine service providers and use ECG patches at home for a week to confirm if they had arrhythmias. Of the 1,000 people who used ECG patches, 32% were confirmed to have atrial fibrillation.
However, the study shows that there are challenges in using these alarms as clinical tools, not just a nice feature on smart watches. Of the 4,700 people who received heart rate notifications, only 1,700 people had telemedicine visits, and only 1,000 people received ECG monitors. For others who received the alert but did not follow up, it is not clear what happened.
“We are eager to find a way for participants to participate in remote clinical research in the future so that we can better comply with the research protocol,” said Dr. Steven Lubitz, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and the lead author of the study. In the AHA interview Presented during the meeting.
The study also had no control group, and no reports of false-negative rates or people who were not alert but who did have AFib. To address this issue, Lubitz said that the study included a survey at the end to collect more information about self-reported atrial fibrillation and patient contact with the healthcare system, although the researchers have not yet shared the results.
Finally, the study is mainly biased towards whites and women, and this pattern has been repeated in several trials of digital health tools. In total, 71% of the participants were women, 77% were white, and approximately 12% were 65 years and older.
Apple also has the function of detecting arrhythmia, and faced similar challenges in an early large-scale study. According to statistics, more than two-fifths of people refuse to follow up after receiving irregular pulse notifications on their watches. Preliminary results shared in 2019.
Recently, Apple Share new discoveries From research, it shows potential interest in using these devices to detect other types of arrhythmias.
Photo Credit: Fitbit
