Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center’s Healthy Together: Spring 2022

LISTENING TO YOUR

HEART WHAT CAN A DIGITAL CARDIAC DEVICE TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR HEART’S RHYTHM?

“C

all your doctor,” said the message on the 87-year-old woman’s Apple Watch. A regular walker and exerciser, the woman wasn’t feeling right, so she’d

PARTHO SENGUPTA, MD

Healthy Together

GARY ROGAL, MD

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checked the Heart Rate app. It showed that her heart rate was significantly slower than normal. Her son took her to the emergency department, where an electrocardiogram determined that there was a problem with the electrical signals in her heart. The next morning, doctors implanted a pacemaker. “Her diagnosis was clearly aided by her having an Apple Watch,” says the woman’s cardiologist, Gary Rogal, MD, Medical Director for RWJBarnabas Health Cardiovascular Services and a member of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. “I believe wearable digital devices

that measure heart rhythm will become a major addition to the diagnostic tool kit for cardiologists.” Who should wear one of these devices? The short answer: people whose doctors recommend it. “Wearable cardiac devices are very handy tools, but you have to be selective about how you use them,” says Dr. Rogal.

THE HEART’S RHYTHM

The main value of wearable cardiac technology lies in its ability to detect cardiac arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats, Dr. Rogal explains. These

Spring 2022

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