Kardia

I was having heart palpitations and brief rapid heart rate episodes lasting any where from minutes to hours. I went through the regular cardiac tests..... stress test, blood work, EKG, echo, and 48 hour mobile heart monitoring. The palpitations and rapid heart rate did not surface during these test. How discouraging, because my symptoms were real but not solid proof. My cardiologist was concerned but not convinced there could be a problem. I mean after all doctors work with concrete facts. I remembered I had a Kardia, AliveCor Mobile EKG which I had purchased a year or so before these symptoms to help with my mother's heart tracking. I started monitoring my palpitations with the view to sharing the results with my doc. I also used the device when I started to have longer rapid heart rate episodes which were sporadic and usually occurred when the Doc's office was closed. (Who can run to the doctor at a moments notice and get in? Not me) Bingo! Proof that my symptoms were real. I printed out the EKG records I had taken with my Kardia, faxed them to my cardiologist, and received a call the same day with the diagnosis of Afib. I truly believe a correct diagnosis came about faster, without a possible emergency room visit, and in the comfort/safely at home only because of this fabulous device and easy to use app. For under a hundred dollars it's the BEST investment in my and my family's health I have made.

I have had atrial fibrillation for a number of years. During that time if I felt anything “off” I went to the ER. After relaxing and working with meditation all the symptoms went away every time. The doctors seemed to be as surprised as I was. There were many false alarms. At the hospital I was routinely checked-out. With 20 minutes of meditation all the systems were normal. My cardiologist was pleased with how I was being proactive. He showed me the Kardia app and I purchased it that day. The app gave me such peace of mind. I could use it to determine if I was having a heart event and needed to relax and check again to determine if I needed to go to the ER. Now, which is two years later, I have done routine daily readings and I’ve had no sign of a-fib except two times. I sent the results for an immediate reading and feedback. 20 minutes later—but using meditation and quietly coping whatever was going wrong had already resolved any concerns before my results even had been reported back to me. I keep my yearly check-ups and I’m doing great. Given my experience I recommend the Kardia app. It’s a great tool in your fight with heart disease. It’s peace of mind and no false alarm trips to the ER. It’s a huge piece of what I do to stay well and deal with my heart irregularities in a very wise way. Best of luck to anyone reading this post.

Have had intermittent attacks of chest pain that I thought was due to GI problems. I was diagnosed with an ulcer. After it was healed I still had several of these attacks. I noticed my heart was beating unusually. Because it happened at night or on the weekends I decided to buy the Kardia. It was the best thing I have done because on the last attack I was able to record what was happening. I was shocked that it told me I had possible atrial fibrillation. The attack lasted several hours but was gone in the morning. I called The cardiologist and was seen that morning. The EKG was normal and has been ever since. I don’t know when it will happen again,but now I can send the recording directly to my doctor for evaluation. Because of this device I can receive the treatment to prevent future episodes. I strongly recommend this device for anyone who has issues with their heart especially if it occurs intermittently.

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I was very excited to use this as a tool to help monitor my heart issues, since my symptoms are not always consistent this made me feel better about having the ability to record an EKG at the precise moment I was having symptoms. TO MY EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT I found out that my expensive band is just that! Unless I pay EXTRA for the “premium” subscription, I can’t even record an EKG to send to my cardiologist for his review. To make matters worse, the customer service I received was ridiculous. First, she wouldn’t answer a question without me giving her my contact information (I just had a question, why is my information needed to just answer a question), then after clarifying that my Kardia band will only work if I PAY EXTRA for their premium subscription. The rep attempted to “pacify” me stating, “you didn’t have to buy the watch, sorry you didn’t see this on the website prior to purchasing the band”. This is all aside from the fact that the app drains my watch battery and takes over the face of the watch making it difficult to use other features on the watch. I FEEL LIKE I WAS SCAMMED! I bought this to help my health NOT CAUSE MORE STRESS! I will definitely be telling people about this experience.

I am updating my review to 4 Stars after hearing back from Kardia. It looks like they are doing the best they can with the watch OS and until Apple provides an OS that permits apps such as Kardia to run in the background we will have to live with it as is. The following is their very reasoned response: Thank you for your feedback and we are looking in to every avenue possible to make this experience better. To be able to gather your heart rate at the required rate, the application is forced to operate as a Workout mode by the platform, and Workout modes are forced to the front of the watch face. There is currently no way around this limitation, but we will happily make the change once the platform allows it. We’ve tried to make this as unobtrusive as possible by adding the time and date to our own screen, but understand that it may not be what you prefer. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I reported this issue some weeks ago and was assured it would be fixed in an upcoming update but we are still waiting. Meanwhile we essentially don’t have a watch dial on arm raise or a working sleep app to name just two major issues caused by this application’s frontal focus. Then there is battery drain. Because the app monitors pulse 24/7 the watch requires recharge twice daily. I appreciate what it does, but it should be smart enough to accomplish its task without expensing every other watch app and placing such a heavy battery drain.