Samsung Galaxy Active 2 ekg watch

Thanks to GeorgeN’s post, I enrolled in UCSF afib study. I am getting either occasional AF or flutter since my September ablation so I qualified. They use Eureka app.

The study came with a new Samsung phone (Loan since I have a iPhone), the Samsung watch and a nifty 30 day monitor which is attached to my chest. It’s a ePatch. It comes with extra supplies, chargers, cables, easy to read instructions, great tech support as well. The patch lasts 14 days and then I UPS it back with the padded envelope and label and put on the second patch. Patch placement was difficult. I had no clue exactly where it went. They gave diagrams to find ones collarbone and go down 3 fingers. But there is wiggle room depending on finger width variations from person to person.

I am posting this to compare the Samsung watch to the iWatch I currently wear. I like the big screen HR on the Samsung. My iWatch is more stylish. The Samsung saves a step from manually scrolling through the widgets and clicking the heart icon. The ekg function shows a clear strip on the watch face on the Samsung but doesn’t automatically diagnose you with AF or NSR. However I had to wet my finger to activate the sensor on the Samsung prior to the ekg strip. I don’t have that step with my iWatch.

Once a day I will be prompt to take a watch reading.

The startup for the study’s app was simple. List meds, how often you are in AF, family history of AF, and a survey asking if I mind being in Af (dud-however I picked the middle choice as a inconvenience ) and how it affects daily life, walking, lifting without being out of breath and to describe with provided choices my first AF...I.e. where were you and the job description of medical staff who informed me I was in AF. ER, doctor’s office, after a holter test, etc.

I hope UCSF benefits from this study.

Thanks for this. I'll be interested to know your opinion of the Samsung watch versus the Apple. I'm presently Android user but might switch to Apple if the watch is better for Afib.

It turns out the $280 value new watch is my compensation to keep for trying it for 30 days for the trial. They will open up the trial again in a month. If you qualify you can perhaps get a free watch.

I prefer my iPhone because of Siri. Also while I take an ekg, I visually see the actual strip on the face screen. With the Samsung I get a repeating nsr screen. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Samsung ekg feature still on Beta testing? It isn’t released yet, right? Because I’m part of a study, the watch has the study’s software installed. I get vibrations to take an ekg.

I would like the Samsung to give me a diagnosis after a reading. Apple has it but it is a lot of times false positive. Perhaps because it’s part of a study, this feature is blocked on the Samsung. I don’t know. I do know Apple support is forced to verbally tell you they are not licensed to give tech support if one has AF. They actually disabled the feature on my iWatch after a tech call. So the alert notifications when my HR dips or raises works but the notifications of being in AF more than 10 minutes is disabled. I recommend you never tell tech support you have a history of AF.

I can get this block removed if I gift my watch to a non Afibber. So I was told. Not sure.