AliveCor has announced the issuance of a US patent which covers the use of data collected from wearable devices as a means of assisting diagnoses of cardiac arrhythmias, including those that may be asymptomatic.
US Patent Number 9,839,363, entitled “Discordance Monitoring,” describes the analysis of heart rate data and activity data from wearable devices in order to trigger notifications for users to take an ECG when there is a difference between the two biometrics. Disagreement between a user’s heart rate and activity level could be suggestive of any number of heart problems, including asymptomatic atrial fibrillation.
“Medical capture of asymptomatic heart arrhythmias is an ongoing challenge. Holter monitors, implantable recorders, and patches, all present various levels of inconvenience and discomfort. Our technology suggests a future in which detection of heart arrhythmias can be non-invasive, ultra-convenient, and highly reliable,” said AliveCor founder and chief medical officer, David Albert.
AliveCor is presently in clinical trials to assess whether its SmartRhythm feature can be effective in the detection of a broad range of asymptomatic arrhythmias.
SmartRhythm, a component of AliveCor’s app for Apple Watch and iPhone, uses artificial intelligence in concert with inputs from Apple Watch’s heart rate and activity sensors to continuously evaluate the correlation between heart activity and physical activity. When SmartRhythm detects that heart rate and activity are out of sync, the device notifies users to capture an ECG with KardiaBand, or with KardiaMobile, AliveCor’s portable ECG reader.
Apple recently announced its launch of the Apple Heart Study, a first-of-its-kind research study using Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor to collect data on irregular heart rhythms and notify users who may be experiencing atrial fibrillation. Similar to the KardiaBand, Apple’s study uses the Apple Watch and an iPhone-based app to monitor cardiac rhythm in wearers of the smart watch. However, while Apple sends an ECG monitor to participants who appear to experience, AliveCor’s system has the ECG built into the watchstrap with the use of the FDA-cleared KardiaBand.
