Emergency Medical Technologies (EMT), maker of a wireless watch sensor called the Wriskwatch, recently published a single-blinded, phase I study in the journal Heart Rhythm to evaluate their device as a detector of pulselessness, reports iMedicalApps. The Wriskwatch includes a motion sensor and a pulse sensor designed to identify a patient in cardiac arrest, and features built-in fall detection and a panic button. The Wriskwatch has not yet received FDA clearance.

The study included 34 patients, with 24 hospitalized and 10 presenting for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) testing. The sensitivity of the watch to detect pulse status (based on 15 second intervals) was 99.9 percent and the specificity 90.3 percent.

The study's conclusion (and one that may be applied to similar wristwatch devices) is that the Wriskwatch is a “novel device that shows promise as a tool to hasten activation of emergency medical systems and facilitate early defibrillation in patients with cardiac arrest."

You can read the study abstract here via iMedicalApps