Watches have come a long way from their days as a fashionable way of telling the time. With continuous advancements in device technology each year, watches now have the capability to monitor heart rate, oxygen saturation levels and blood pressure. However, while smartwatches with heart monitoring technology can be a useful tool for tracking heart health, they should not be used as a replacement for routine checkups with a cardiologist.

“These machines are not 100 percent intelligent,” said Dr. Sibghat Tul Llah, cardiologist at the CHI St. Vincent Heart Clinic in Little Rock. “They cannot tell you everything.”

One of the most beneficial aspects of smartwatch heart monitoring is the ability to provide alerts for abnormal heart rates. For some patients, these alerts have led to the discovery of atrial fibrillation, an irregular or rapid heart beat. “This is going to bring attention to a lot of patients who are undetected,” said Dr. Tul Llah.

If left untreated, atrial fibrillation can lead to heart failure, stroke, blood clots or other heart complications. To learn more about treating heart disease and the wide range of services provided by our team of cardiologists and heart surgeons at the CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute, visit chistvincent.com/heart.