Screening for Atrial Fibrillation and the Role of Digital Health Technologies

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation is the commonest clinical arrhythmia and a leading cause of hospital admission, morbidity and mortality. New digital health technologies are now allowing patients and the general population to identify heart rhythm abnor-malities before any encounter with a medical professional. This chapter will include an overview of the prevalence of atrial fibrillation and explore the current recommendations on methods for arrhythmia screening. We discuss different risk factors as well as physiological and structural markers for atrial fibrillation onset. We explore in detail the application of novel digital health technologies such as wearables, watches and mobile devices which may have an impact on screening detection rates. The article concludes with a discussion about how to manage patients with screen detected atrial fibrillation.