Peter Gamma (Physiologist & Director) Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS)

Why can we not use a 3 x Apple watch setup which are available used for 300 USD on eBay for the patients in the hospital?

Last Updated on March 12, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

In Rob ter Horsts tests, the Apple what is closest to his Polar H10 chest strap:

But for other activities than intense activities with strong body movements, 3 channel ECG devices are gold standard. But can we not choose a setup with 3 Apple watches do have a gold standard as well? If we look at these papers, we can see that the Apple watch 3 is the closest to a 3 channel medical grade ECG device:

which has an accuracy of about 96 percent. But we do not know if this has been reproduced by someone else. And if it was, would then not someone have written also a validation paper with 3 x Apple watches, and would not iWorx, Biopac, Adinstruments and g.ec offer multi-packs with 3x Apple watches as research and medical grade heart rate measurement device in their shops? But they don’t.

According to papers which we previously have discussed:

https://petergamma.org/category/ecg-devices/

Reproducablity of heart rate measurements requires:

  • A 3 channel ECG device
  • The Manson Lyar ECG placement
  • a trained person who checks every ECG peak.

And 3 x Apple watches do not meet these requirements, as well as 3 x Polar H10 chest straps do not meet this requirements as well: