STAT Plus: Taking a page from Apple, Fitbit launches a sweeping heart study

In a massive push to join Apple’s cardiac research ranks, Fitbit launched an ambitious study Wednesday to test whether its wearables can be used to detect a common heart problem known as atrial fibrillation.

The Fitbit Heart Study kicks off nearly four years after Apple’s similarly named research effort and six months after Google announced plans to acquire Fitbit in a $2.1 billion deal. The initiative will use light sensors embedded in the back of its wrist-worn wearables to spot when a heart’s chambers are beating out of cadence, something called an arrhythmia.

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