Trident Medical sees more proactive patients with smart watch health features

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A Lowcountry hospital says health features found on wearable devices are creating better awareness for people with heart conditions.

Between the heart rate and EKG functions on smart watches, Dr. Darren Sidney, an electrophysiologist at Trident Medical Center, is seeing patients taking a more proactive approach in finding irregular heartbeats before they become emergent.

Sidney says there’s an increase in patients using the technology to detect heart conditions that would normally be hard to notice on their own in the early stages.

Sidney explains that daily tracking through the watches’ health features can sometimes save people a trip to the ER, and even help save a life.

He believes the watches are an essential item to have at home and on the go, and are just as critical as having something such as a thermometer in your home.

The data they collect can be easily shared with your primary care doctor, who can then refer you to a cardiologist or electrophysiologist, if necessary, Sidney says.

“The key to arrythmia’s in most situations is earlier treatment is the better,” he says. “You get better prognosis, better outcomes when we address them earlier rather than letting them linger for too long.”

Sidney says the downside to the technology is that it only shows the EKG reading when the person wearing it is holding down on the device.

He says in the future he hopes to see the watches evolve to where an EKG would be continuous.

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