Purpose of review: This review describes the novel category of wearable ECG monitors and identifies where patients, healthcare providers, and device manufacturers should focus efforts to maximize the clinical benefit of these devices.
Recent findings: Notable wearable ECG monitors include the AliveCor Kardia devices, Apple Watch Series 4, and several others. The most common use case is monitoring for atrial fibrillation. The available evidence validates the ability of the Kardia devices and Apple Watch to distinguish atrial fibrillation from sinus rhythm. Key questions for manufacturers include how to calibrate each device's algorithms and streamline workflows for healthcare providers. Wearable ECG monitors are currently most useful to detect atrial fibrillation. Further study is needed to demonstrate whether wearable ECG monitors improve patient outcomes, and to expand their use into other indications. Device manufacturers and healthcare providers must work together to establish new workflows to process and act on wearable ECG data.
Keywords: AliveCor; Apple Watch; Atrial fibrillation; Electrocardiogram; Stroke; Wearables.