Why Rob ter Horst could not convince us personally to use the Polar H10 or one of his 100 smartwatches to us for our scientific studies

Last Updated on April 5, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

About two years ago Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org critisized Rob ter Horst PhD. for not testing his smartwatches:

against clinical or research grade reference devices as those listed here:

90.02 Research & medical grade ECG devices which some of those were used to study the accuracy of consumer grade HRMs in different papers

Shortly after that, Rob ter Horst published a video on his YouTube channel about the Polar H10:

Where he reviewed this paper:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004219

And Rob ter Horst wanted to convince us in a scientific review that the Polar H10 is the best heart rate monitor with an accuracy of 99.6%. But Peter gamma from www.petergamma.org was irritated and and confused about this review and Rob ter Horst’s conclusion. The Polar H10 more accurate than research or medical grade ECG devices? How could this be? To clarify this Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org wrote a review about this:

090. Review of Accuracy Studies of Consumer Grade Heart Rate Monitors: Methods, Testing Protocols, Reference Devices

And as a conclusion of the review he wrote, Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org decided not to use a Polar H10 chest strap for research as is best device for heart rate measurement, as Rob ter Horst suggested. On the contrary, Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org concluded to use 3 channel ECG devices for his research, and not to use smartwatches either, since he hardly knows any scientist who use smartwatches or the Polar H10 on a regular basis and systematically for their research.

And Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org decided to choose 3 channel ECG devices for his reserach, since these are gold standard for runs up to about 15 km/ h on a treadmill and if
if intense activities with strong body movements are not investigated, and the activities he investigates are in this range. These reserach and medical grade ECG devices are also used by for instance by the group of Cardiologist Milind Desai, MD, MBA from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio as a reference device for their research:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732081

These cardiologists used a 3 channel ECG as a gold standard for their tests, but not the Polar H7, which they also tested, but was not as accurate as the 3 channel Quinton Q-tel RMS ECG device they used as a reference device in the paper mentioned above.