The study from a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US reported that the use of contemporary wrist-worn wearables was also associated with a reduction in stroke incidence and could help to detect less frequent AF episodes through its ability to monitor for potentially irregular heart rhythm on a near-continuous basis.

“The proliferation of wrist-worn devices for AF detection provides a convenient option for population-wide screening, though it’s not known if their use will lead to increased costs and problems related to follow-up testing and false positives,” said Jagpreet Chhatwal, director of the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment.

“We, therefore, simulated a virtual trial comparing clinical and cost outcomes under different AF screening strategies, and showed that those using wrist-worn devices resulted in greater benefits compared to traditional modalities, and at a cost deemed affordable to the healthcare system.”

Atrial fibrillation...