The University Of Kansas Medical Center is partnering with Garmin Health to foster innovation and better understand on how healthcare wearables can help in the detection and management of significant medical conditions. Their first research will focus on cardiac care and sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea, a clinically under-detected and costly disorder to study, may affect over 18 million Americans. Garmin Health has worked with the KU Medical Center health experts to study how a wearable equipped with optical sensors could be used to detect sleep apnea and offer a lower cost alternative to an overnight sleep center evaluation.

Healthcare wearables have already increased the public awareness of activity levels while awake,” said Dr. Suzanne Stevens, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology of KU. "This research helps us better understand how wearable can do the same while asleep, helping to detect sleep apnea, which left untreated can affect mood, memory, trigger heart arrhythmias, heart attacks, and even strokes.”

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm that can increase the risk of stroke by 500% and can cause a cardiac seizure. It is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting millions of people in the United States alone with rates expected to continually increase. Like sleep apnea, atrial fibrillation has been cumbersome and costly to detect. Unfortunately, in 20% of patients, atrial fibrillation is not identified until they have a stroke.

"Wearable technology capable of early detection and monitoring of heart rhythm disorders will be a revolutionary boon to cardiac care,” said Madhu Reddy, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at KU Medical Center and Division Director, Heart Rhythm Services in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at The University of Kansas Health System.

"As patients assume increased responsibility for their own health-care, we are committed to develop wearables that can lead to the prevention or detection of serious health conditions. With long battery life, high water rating, and high-quality sensor data, we can provide meaningful features that will help reduce health care costs and provide useful functionality for everyday life,” stated Scott Burgett, Director of Garmin Health Engineering.

Garmin fitness segment develops technologies to enhance and promote healthy and active lifestyles. Garmin Health provides enterprise solutions that leverage Garmin wearables and the high-quality sensor data they produce for use in the corporate wellness, population health, and patient monitoring markets.