Apple smart watches should be available on the NHS for patients with a common heart rhythm disorder, leading experts have claimed.
This follows a landmark study published last week by researchers at Barts hospital London found that giving patients the device slashed readmission to hospital, improved patients quality of life and detected more potentially fatal heart events than standard care.
The research team analysed data from nearly 200 patients with atrial fibrillation – a condition that causes a rapid, irregular heartbeat and can lead to stroke and heart failure.
Previous studies have shown that up to 50 per cent of patients treated with the condition will have some symptoms return.
Currently patients are only monitored at three, six and 12 months after treatment; they then may be offered devices to monitor their heart over a 24 hour period.
In this trial patients were given an Apple watch to monitor their heart over the course of a year following treatment.
The researchers found that the number of unplanned hospital visits from patients with the watch was slashed in half.
Patients with the device were also found to have higher rates of recurring symptoms, which the research team says shows that the watch improved detection and speed of the condition being caught.
Researchers’ found that an Apple watch reduced the number of unplanned admissions to hospital
Experts say this is because patients were able to monitor their own condition; on average patients carried out a total of 170 ECG’s – which records the electrical activity of the heart – during this period.
Dr Nikhil Ahluwalia, a cardiologist at Barts Hospital, and lead author of the study said: ‘We have shown that by giving patients the power to monitor their condition at home, we are able to reduce the number of times they make unplanned visits hospital but also catch recurring symptoms quicker.
‘Using the Apple watch we have moved from a snapshot photograph of the heart in a specific window to a video across the year.
‘To provide this level of care without the watch we would have to undertake an invasive procedure implanting a device under the skin.’
The research team say that another benefit of using the device as part of the after care for patients is that it provides equal access to care across the country.
‘One patient enrolled in the trial lived in Cornwall and before the trial she was ending up in hospital every six weeks,’ says Dr Ahluwalia.
The watch prevents the need for invasive surgery, said the study author
‘It meant that she gave up her very active lifestyle and lived in fear of her symptoms returning.
‘On the trial we showed she was able to manage her condition at home, and was able to tell when her symptoms actually required a visit to A&E. She was better able to manage her condition with tablets and was able to return to her active lifestyle.
‘This has shown how we are able to offer specialist cardiology care in remote parts of the country that may not have had access before.’
The research team say that they have shown that the Apple watch would be a cost effective tool for the NHS.
‘The cost of one of these devices is similar to a one off assessment in a hospital,’ says Dr Ahluwalia.
‘There is definitely a case for this to be rolled out on the NHS.’
Recent figures, published by the British Heart Foundation, reveal that the number of people in the UK with atrial fibrillation has risen by 50 per cent in a decade.
Some 1.5 million people – the equivalent of one in 45 – are known to be living with the disorder.
