The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Fitbit to deploy its passive heart rhythm monitoring technology. According to TechCrunch, the Google-owned wearable will now be able to notify its users about issues related to atrial fibrillation (AFib) by running heart rhythm tests in the background.
Premium Fitbit products are already equipped with electrocardiogram (ECG) tools that allow users to manually run an ECG and check out their heart rhythm. With enough manual testing, users can detect irregularities (if any) that can help save their lives.
However, users don’t need to run manual tests anymore as FDA has approved the wearables photoplethysmography or PPG algorithm tech that will automatically run the tests in the background.
AFib detection has turned out to be a crucial feature amongst health-focused wearables. A Google blog post says that irregular heartbeats can increase the risk of stroke by around 5 times and almost 33.5 million people across the world suffer from it.
Apple Watch too boasts this feature. However, do note that these wearables won’t replace official medical tests, but they can act as an early warning system.
The report suggests that Fitbit’s testing of this feature has shown a 98 per cent success rate in detecting AFib issues. The company has not disclosed the products in which it will include the tech and hasn’t even mentioned a timeline for releasing products with it.
Fitbit has announced that it will introduce heart-monitoring devices “soon” for consumers in the US. Meanwhile, rumours suggest that this tech is expected to be introduced in Fitbit’s current flagship products -- the Sense and the Charge 5, which are the only products from the company that comes with ECG support.
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