Background
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an abnormal heart rhythm which increases the risk of stroke when untreated. Consequently, AF screening programmes are now being developed. These involve taking home a handheld clinical device, and checking your heart rhythm twice a day for a fortnight to search for AF. It may be possible to improve this process by using consumer devices such as fitness bands to check for AF in daily life.
The aim of this project is to establish how clinical and consumer devices can best be used to identify AF. Firstly, we will establish criteria for detecting possible AF from fitness bands. Secondly, we will develop a 30 second test to identify patients who are unlikely to have AF, so they do not have to use a device at home. Thirdly, we will assess different devices for home rhythm monitoring. This research will be conducted using data collected from clinical devices in a large AF screening trial at the University of Cambridge (the SAFER Study). We will ask some of the participants to also wear consumer devices and a reference heart monitor for a week for this project. The findings are expected to enhance AF screening programmes, making them more sensitive and cost-effective.
This project is conducted in collaboration with the Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering at City, University of London.
Contact details
PI: Dr Pete Charlton
Funder
British Heart Foundation: grant number is FS/20/20/34626
Project start date and end date
Start: 24th Feb 2020
End: 23rd Feb 2025
Publications/Posters/Conferences
D. Tecelão and P. Charlton, “Automated P-Wave Quality Assessment for Wearable Sensors,” Proceedings, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.3390/ecsa-5-05743
D. Tecelão, “Prediction of postoperative atrial fibrillation using the electrocardiogram: A proof of concept”, MSc. Thesis, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2018. https://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/64177
Peter H. Charlton, “Capitalising on Smart Wearables to Improve Health Monitoring,” Clinical Science & Engineering for Digital Health Workshop, Birmingham, 2018. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9GnXEexHD4&t=10s . Slides: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1406011