ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
Feasibility and Reliability of a Smartwatch to Detect Atrial Fibrillation after Cardiac Surgery: a prospective study
Provisionally accepted
Konrad Schreier1,2*
Michael Borger2
Alireza Sepehri Shamloo2Lukas Hofmann1,2Thomas Schröter2Sandra Eifert2Angeliki Darma2Christian Etz3Sergey Leontyev2
Martin Misfeld2
ANDREAS BOLLMANN2Arash Arya4,5- 1Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- 2Herzzentrum Leipzig Universitatsklinik, Leipzig, Germany
- 3Universitatsmedizin Rostock, Rostock, Germany
- 4Universitatsklinikum Halle Saale, Halle (Saale), Germany
- 5Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
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Background: Atrial fibrillation, the world's predominant cardiac arrhythmia, frequently emerges as a complication post-cardiac surgery, leading to serious outcomes like strokes, heart failures, and even death. Due to its often-silent nature, detecting it can be challenging. Smartwatches present a potential solution, offering screening that is more rigorous. Objective: This prospective observational study sought to assess the Withings Scanwatch's efficacy in identifying postoperative atrial fibrillation. Methods: After cardiac surgery, patients received a Withings Scanwatch. Over a span of 24 hours, both the smartwatch's photoplethysmography sensor and standard telemetry kept track of any atrial fibrillation incidents. Results: At the end of the study, data from 260 patients was available for assessment. Atrial fibrillation was identified in 32 of these patients, either via telemetry or the smartwatch. Our data revealed a sensitivity of 69.0%, specificity of 98.7%, a positive predictive value of 87.0%, and a negative predictive value of 96.2%. Conclusions: This clinical study is the first to evaluate the photoplethysmography sensor of the Withings Scanwatch, and it shows that the Scanwatch has high a specificity and moderate sensitivity in detecting postoperative atrial fibrillation. Thus, Scanwatch may support the conventional screening for atrial fibrillation, and potentially reducing complications and costs of atrial fibrillation. Because of lower than expected sensitivity this technology cannot replace conventional monitoring in postoperative patients.
Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, cardiac surgery, Monitoring, screening, SmartWatch
Received: 03 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schreier, Borger, Sepehri Shamloo, Hofmann, Schröter, Eifert, Darma, Etz, Leontyev, Misfeld, BOLLMANN and Arya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Konrad Schreier
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