At the Apple new product announcements last week, the new Apple Watch was presented as a device to improve health. They announced a new health study to be conducted with Stanford to use the watch to study irregular heart rhythms, specifically atrial fibrillation, a known risk factor for stroke.
Apple has stated that their watch is the most used heart rate monitor in the world.
The writing is on the wall. Irregular heart rhythms will be detected in new ways by wearable devices, and conditions such as atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea will be diagnosed outside of the doctor’s office, often by patients themselves.
From Time Magazine: How the Apple Watch Could Change How We Treat Heart Disease