How Smart Devices Are Revolutionizing Cardiac Care

By Your Health Magazine

The traditional method of collecting medical data included a thermometer, a weighing scale, and blood pressure monitors. However, with the advancement in technology, smart devices are becoming increasingly in demand due to the technology making them more accurate and reliable than ever. Devices are available for every lifestyle, from fitness enthusiasts to those managing severe heart conditions.

These devices include smart watches, patches, fitness trackers, rings, chest straps, and armbands. These devices monitor heart health by tracking heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep patterns, ECG measurements, and other key health indicators. Using these devices can help you detect health issues before visiting the doctor. Let’s take a closer look at how these devices are transforming the cardiac health sector.

Role of Smart Devices in Heart Health

Smart devices have transformed the traditional way of monitoring cardiovascular disease. These devices are known as cardiac devices due to their ability to use built-in sensors to continuously monitor vital signs and activity levels. Although these devices were inaccurate at times, they now provide real-time data with improved accuracy on heart health and stress levels, and the best part is that the monitoring is continuous.

How Do Wearables Help in Maintaining a Healthy Heart

These smart devices track physical activity steps and calories burned, helping you keep track of your heart health and improve it. These monitors help you keep track of your exercise and encourage you to stay regular with it. Apart from this, you can check your calorie consumption, which motivates you to eat healthily. The sleep tracking keeps a check on your sleep cycle, which is also important for your heart’s and overall health.

Smart Devices and AFib Patients

The smart devices have improved over time, and they prove beneficial in tracking continuous heart rate and rhythm to easily diagnose a potentially dangerous condition like atrial fibrillation (AFib). The tricky part about this condition is that it happens occasionally, as sometimes the patient might experience it for just an hour onl,y and it might not come back for a few months, which means the next attack would be unpredicted and difficult to detect.

Some patients don’t show symptoms of this condition and don’t even know they suffer from it. This undetected atrial fibrillation becomes serious over time. This seriousness can be overcome with the help of ambulatory ECG, a sensor that is placed on the chest to monitor the patient’s heart rhythm for several days to several weeks. If there is AFib or other heartbeat problems, the patient is informed immediately. Nowadays, even smartwatches can detect heart rhythm with fairly good accuracy.

These devices continuously monitor heart health and immediately send an alert and notification to linked devices, along with the device itself, about any abnormal heart activity that may require immediate medical attention.

Challenges with Smart Devices

Although wearable devices provide real-time health readings, the primary drawback is the accuracy and reliability of the data. Though the technology is improving over time, there have been cases when smart devices have reported false positives or negatives. A device may report a health complication when none exists, and a patient may be experiencing an attack, but the device may show green all around. Although these false readings aren’t common occurrences, they are known to happen.

Additionally, data privacy is a concern. Many users feel the data collected by their devices may not be safe. It can be vulnerable if the company is the target of a cyber attack or can be sold off to third parties for advertising purposes. Even if a device manufacturer manages to solve the challenges mentioned, a big glaring problem is the accessibility of said devices to all. The cost of smart cardiac devices is high, and not everyone can afford them. This may leave many the public unable to purchase these devices and benefit from them.

The Future of Smart Health Devices

Wearable devices are a game changer for cardiac care and overall well-being. Along with tracking your health, you can also stay regular with your daily exercise, thanks to buzzing notifications that sense your idle state. From this, the devices tend to improve further with more precise blood pressure (BP) tracking, non-invasive glucose monitoring, and AI-driven health predictions. This technology aims to include brain health into overall well-being, right at the palms of your hands.

Final Thoughts

Smart devices can be a valuable tool for tracking health, especially for individuals with underlying health issues, but they shouldn’t be the sole means of monitoring for a patient. Even cardiologists agree that smart devices can help patients monitor their health and, if they feel unwell, should immediately seek medical attention.

The wearable device proves beneficial in tracking physical activity, monitoring vital signs, improving fitness, and managing disease. It allows heart patients and individuals suffering from other related conditions to monitor their vital signs and potentially stop or manage complications and attacks before they happen.