Fitbit gets FDA clearance for passive heart rhythm monitoring
by Nicole Wetsman from The Verge - All Posts on (#5Y26N)
Photo by Avery White for The Verge A Fitbit feature that passively monitors users' heart rhythms was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, the company announced today.
The feature periodically checks wearers' heart rhythms and alerts them if they show signs of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that puts people at a higher risk for stroke. Fitbit already had an FDA-cleared EKG app that can do spot checks for the condition, but users had to manually take those readings. The new tool runs in the background.
Fitbit ran a study testing the feature in 2020, which found that the tech could correctly identify cases of atrial fibrillation 98 percent of the time. Adding this tool to Fitbit devices brings its heart monitoring tech more in line with the A...