App turns smartwatch into detector of structural heart disease

An app that uses an AI model to read a single-lead ECG from a smartwatch can detect structural heart disease, researchers reported at the 2025 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. 

Although the technology requires further validation, researchers said it could help improve the identification of patients with heart failure, valvular conditions and left ventricular hypertrophy before they become symptomatic, which could improve the prognosis for people with these conditions. 

As Medscape reported from the 2025 Scientific Sessions — Richard Becker, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and director and physician-in-chief of the UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, said the new study “opens the door for wearable technology, including a single ECG lead to be included in the broader dialogue of ECG screening.”

But Becker noted only about 18% of smartwatches claiming ECG functionality have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for medical use in such an application.

“Despite the remarkable strides in artificial intelligence and wearable technology, the full potential of these innovations remains largely untapped in a health care system that has veered off course in terms of prevention,” he said. “In a nation where predictive tools capable of identifying disease years before symptoms arise are readily available, the challenge lies not in technological capability but in the collective will to integrate these tools equitably and ethically.”

Experts report structural heart disease typically goes undetected for years, and patients tend not to get diagnosed until they become symptomatic. 

Read the full Medscape article.

Featured image at top: Illustration of human heart with ECG graph. Photo/iStock/Rasi Bhadramani.