Atrial fibrillation detection

Hi, not sure it is that simple, possibly it is technically something doable but being able to write this in the specs is a real pain of going through all the testing and authorizations (even in case the device is declared as "not a medical instrument, readings are just for reference, ... And all this stuff)

If I may ask... Which "simple smatwatches" are you referring to? There is a lot out there that claim to measure ecg, blood pressure, body temperature, and all sort of things... I got one myself and honestly... Readings appear more than reasonable even if it is an extremely cheap wrist band I got mostly for curiosity, but... There is no way for me to say if they are accurate, nor any declaration of the manufacturer about accuracy, testing, authorizations, ... Basically, a cheap "eastern" toy.

A brand like Garmin would surely want to go through all the hassle of validating and get approved by medical isntitutions before putting out such kind of functions, so possible but remains to be seen if they would consider this worth the effort...

Thanks for your answer. Of course aFib detection (same as EKG etc...) doesn't replace a medical device. Additionally I don't care at all about the EKG or Blood Pressures gadgets...useless and even dangerous given the false alarms.

Anyhow aFib can be "easily" detected I think, one wearing the watch 24h with a standard HR rate during the day..the watch can detect via AI/software whether your beats are abnormal, it does already with Min and Max alerts, it can well do for suspected irregularities.

My question was more if that feature can be implemented with the existing hardware or Garmin has to develop software+hardware for it.

If you ask me... For the little I remember from  readings some time back, through a PPG sensor (and in some case a combination of multiple sensors) it is in theory possible to estimate ecg, AFib, and also blood pressure. Of course ,it is ESTIMATING through calculation, not measuring directly. Specifically for AFib one sensor should be enough, so Garmin devices would be already equipped. Of course... Much is depending on the precision of the sensor and on the solidity of the algorithm that interprets the raw data, important part of it is always the noise filtering as the PPG sensors, particularly if worn on wrist, get a lot of noise with the data (and this is true also for the simpler hr value estimation...)

So... To me theoretically yes, would be doable, practically... Would imply a big effort in building a reliable algorithm, and get is tested and approved.

Garmin already has some issues with the hr basic data, in my opinion this won't be coming any time soon. Though... I personally hope they give it a try

Thanks for your insights

Many of us wear this pieces of iron 24h and would like to get the most out of it....(with all the technology limitation of course). 

I doubt a Garmin expert will join this discussion to add more insights too but...let's see...

Hi, not sure it is that simple, possibly it is technically something doable but being able to write this in the specs is a real pain of going through all the testing and authorizations (even in case the device is declared as "not a medical instrument, readings are just for reference, ... And all this stuff)

If I may ask... Which "simple smatwatches" are you referring to? There is a lot out there that claim to measure ecg, blood pressure, body temperature, and all sort of things... I got one myself and honestly... Readings appear more than reasonable even if it is an extremely cheap wrist band I got mostly for curiosity, but... There is no way for me to say if they are accurate, nor any declaration of the manufacturer about accuracy, testing, authorizations, ... Basically, a cheap "eastern" toy.

Abrandblike Garmin would surely want to go through alla hassle of validating and get approved by medical isntitutions before putting out such kind of functions, so possible but remains to be seen if they would consider this a valuable effort...

I guess if you really need valuable and actionable health data you should buy an Apple Watch, which does detect a-fib with a good precision.

Fenix watches are more geared toward providing a LOT of so-and-so data that, taken as a whole, may suggest a trend, which is still somewhat useful.

Argh ! No please. I abandoned Apple's ecosystem years ago and won't go back :-) I live with my Garmin even without aFib :-) But thanks !

I recently got an Apple Watch and thought it was useful to try using their ECG, tried twice. The first time the reading was an error and the second time got HR too low, it was only 40bpm.

Even the market leading consumer technology is not quite there yet so it’s unlucky that the no name impacts will provide that accurate information to be reliably used.

Exacltly. ECK&EKG/Blood Pressure & co are all gadgets. Zero value on a watch.

I think the only feature of worth can be aFib detection but apparently some brands and Garmin don't dare to get it approved.

A saw an article a week or two ago. Actually all the news feed was full of articles about it. It seems that in one of the late 2021 models they accidentally released some debug app that you could access when you rebooted the watch. They also had a clinical test running last year that is also related to this. Nobody knows if it will ever get to a product, and if yes then when. My guess however is that it will not get to Fenix for 2 reasons:
1. I guess only the watches with the newer generation optical heart rate sensor will get it
2. even if some of the older devices will get it too, not sure if F6 has the HW power that it needs to run it.