{"id":423820,"date":"2026-01-22T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423820\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:04:09","slug":"new-study-shows-just-how-effective-apple-watch-is-at-detecting-afib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423820\/","title":{"rendered":"New study shows just how effective Apple Watch is at detecting AFib"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ECG-patent-infringement-claim.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"ITC rules that Apple Watch infringed AliveCor's ECG patent, US sales potentially threatened\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>New <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1113132\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">peer-reviewed research<\/a> suggests Apple Watch could play a much bigger role in spotting atrial fibrillation. In a real-world study, researchers found that smartwatch-based monitoring caught far more cases than traditional approaches, including in people who had no idea anything was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Apple Watch <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2018\/12\/06\/watchos-5-1-2-ecg-app\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">added the ECG app<\/a> and irregular heart rhythm notification with the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018. Since then, we\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2019\/08\/23\/apple-watch-ecg-afib-saved-life\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">heard<\/a> countless <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/05\/12\/apple-watch-atrial-fibrilation-alert\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stories<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2023\/11\/07\/apple-watch-diabetes-luebke\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple\u2019s<\/a> wearable helping save people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n<p>This new study from Amsterdam UMC shows just how effective the Apple Watch is at detecting atrial fibrillation.<\/p>\n<p>The six-month study included 437 people, all of whom were over the age of 65 and at elevated stroke risk. 219 people were given an Apple Watch and wore it for around 12 hours per day, while 218 people received standard care.<\/p>\n<p>After six months:<\/p>\n<p>21 people in the Apple Watch group were diagnosed<\/p>\n<p>57% of those people had no symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>5 people in the standard-care group were diagnosed<\/p>\n<p>All of whom experienced symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>This highlights how the Apple Watch can catch AFib in people who never would\u2019ve gone looking for it because they felt fine. AFib is often intermittent and asymptomatic, so short-term monitoring can miss it. That\u2019s why the Apple Watch\u2019s continuous monitoring is key.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s Michiel Winter, cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing smartwatches with PPG and ECG functions aids doctors in diagnosing individuals unaware of their arrhythmia, thereby expediting the diagnostic process. Our findings suggest a potential reduction in the risk of stroke, benefiting both patients and the healthcare system by reducing costs. This reduction would offset the initial cost of the device.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can read the full study at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacc.org\/doi\/10.1016\/j.jacc.2025.11.032\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the JACC Journals website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/9to5mac.com\" aria-label=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-dark\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768338849_561_google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"google-preferred-source-badge-light\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768338849_421_google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\" alt=\"Add 9to5Mac as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\">FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/about\/#affiliate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3LroSSb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1035230\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769123049_541_750_150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"150\"\/><\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New peer-reviewed research suggests Apple Watch could play a much bigger role in spotting atrial fibrillation. In a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[166,74],"class_list":["post-423820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}