Mobile technology could be life-saving for people with heart problems, study states
| Nov 14, 2018, 12:42 IST
Researchers state that mobile technology on smartphones and smartwatches can accurately detect if you are having a heart attack or not and hence, the technology could potentially be life-saving for people who have heart problems. As part of the study, the researchers used an app that uses electrocardiograph (ECG) to monitor heart rate and they found that it was as accurate at diagnosing a heart attack as the standard 12-lead ECG used by medical professionals.
“We found the app helped us diagnose heart attacks very effectively – and it didn't indicate the presence of a heart attack when one wasn't occurring,” Dr J. Brent Muhlestein, lead investigator of the study and cardiovascular researcher at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute, said. The FDA, however, noted that the device can fail to detect heart rate issues if the ECG has a bad signal and that both false negative and false positives could occur in the software. However, the findings of this study are important because heart patients can seek help faster if they find an irregularity in their heart rates on their apps and this is very important in cases of a severe heart attack. Also, apps are cheap to obtain and hence they come greatly in use for poorer communities, especially in third-world countries, where finding a medical ECG can be difficult.
“We found the app helped us diagnose heart attacks very effectively – and it didn't indicate the presence of a heart attack when one wasn't occurring,” Dr J. Brent Muhlestein, lead investigator of the study and cardiovascular researcher at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute, said. The FDA, however, noted that the device can fail to detect heart rate issues if the ECG has a bad signal and that both false negative and false positives could occur in the software. However, the findings of this study are important because heart patients can seek help faster if they find an irregularity in their heart rates on their apps and this is very important in cases of a severe heart attack. Also, apps are cheap to obtain and hence they come greatly in use for poorer communities, especially in third-world countries, where finding a medical ECG can be difficult.