Afib - Accuracy of Galaxy Watch 6 vs Apple Watch

[userE4jScMBJfw]

My cardiologist asked me to use an Apple Watch to automatically monitor for afib. So before switching my Galaxy 21+ and Watch 6 to an iPhone and Apple watch I have a few questions:

1. Is there any reason to use a Galaxy watch 6 over an Apple Watch SPECIFICALLY for monitoring afib and heart rate. Monitoring afib and heart rate is actually the ONLY reason I purchased a Watch 6. I wouldn't wear and haven't worn a watch otherwise. 
2. Can the iPhone and Apple watch indeed check for afib continuously in the BACKGROUND without having to put a finger on some button on the Apple watch?
3. Is the Apple watch more accurate than the Watch 6 to ACTIVELY monitor for afib, i.e. when you put your finger on the watch?
4. Is the Apple watch more accurate than the Watch 6 to PASSIVLY monitor for afib, i.e. in the background WITHOUT putting your finger on the watch?

[TipsyTrex]

They're about as accurate, but the apple watch is more frequently used because apple has been aggressively pursuing the medical industry and has received more certifications, passed more regulatory bodies etc. I have certain thoughts about how apple is able to achieve this while samsung is continually denied certifications by the FDA, perhaps the single most brazenly corrupt government body that exists, but I think I've already signaled what those feelings are.

[bill-e]

@LongHiker  Is this not automatic?  I snapped this a few days ago for another post and today it says that the last time it checked is today, Mar  17th.  IHRN is not the same as taking an EKG. I haven't manually check my EKG in many, many months.  I don't know how often it checks or if there is a setting for that. 

Samsung says it's available on USA WearOS 4 watches

[LongHiker]

@bill-e I believe that this is the alert for low or high heart rate. You can enable/disable this, and set the values, by:

1. Open watch settings on watch
2. Click on Health
3. Click on Heart rate
4. Here you will find settings for High HR and Low HR. 

I could be incorrect. But I haven't seen a firmware update which enabled that feature on the watch. 

As a test, I turned off those warnings. I'll see if I see an updated measurement appear in the phone app. 

[LongHiker]

@bill-e After I turned off the high and low HR testing, I received an update about on the Irregular heart rhythm measurement. 

So it looks like you are correct.

This is enabled on the watches. I looked back through the update notes for the watches and Samsung Health Monitor and couldn't find any mention of when they enabled this after the public announcement. 

I'll correct my other posts. 

[userE4jScMBJfw]

Thanks for that screenshot. Sometimes I see that on/off switch for "Irregular heart rhythm notifications" and sometimes I don't. That's kind of strange. In my list of ECGs I always see a menu at the bottom "Irregular heart rhythm notifications" When I click on it, it shows me a screen with "No irregular heart rhythm notifications". So apparently none were detected. That is strange because I know I frequently have Afib over  extended periods of time which can also be seen from the ECGs I am doing. So does this function not work well, maybe because I never had a good baseline (always had frequent episodes of Afib)? Or do I need to enable something else? I do have the watch set to always measure heart rate (rather than every 10 minutes, etc). It doesn't measure all the time when it is in "sleep" mode (when the screen goes a bit darker). 

[bill-e]

As you probably know there is a difference between diagnosed afib  and palpitations, the latter although feeling like you have some kind of afib is not. 

I did turn off my  HRM for a few hours and I did see that the IHRN was a checking every 10 minutes so I do believe that the watch 6 has IHRN

While I ocassionally have palpitations and actually checked myself in because of them a few years ago, the results of 5 hours of testing was that it was normal palpitations caused by too much caffeine 😉 

[userE4jScMBJfw]

So IHRN is not using the HRM? I understand the ECG and IHRN/HRM are separate. The former requires you to put a finger on the upper right button (and for the apple watch on the dial). IHRN I thought was based on the HRM which uses an optical sensor. So if HRM is disabled, then I would expect IHRN not to work anymore. But your experiment shows otherwise. So maybe I have some misunderstanding... Any enlightenment on that would be great. 

In any case, I am still not sure why my watch 6 hasn't produced any alert for IHRN. I know I have afib (my cardiologist says so, my ECG from the watch 6 says so) but over the last 2 months since I use the watch it hasn't produced a single notification about irregular heart beat. Could it be some setting? Could the sensor be defective (which is why I wonder if the HRM and IHRN use the same sensor)? Is the watch 6 just not working well for detecting possible afib? 

[bill-e]

As far as I know there is no other settings other than the IHRN toggle in the Samsung Health Monitor app and I can't speak to whether or not the Watch 6 is working since I don't have Afib. 

Best thing to try is to reproduce the issue and then open the Samsung Members app, click on Support (Lower right)->Feedback->Send Error Report,  Remember to check on "Send System Data Log" 

[TDowdell]

Only looking to use watch for afib and heart monitoring, including afib alerts - which is better for this - samsung watch 6 or apple watch 9?

Thanks