The Next Health Tech Revolution Is Here

From smart watches to tracking apps, devices are providing valuable insights.

-  Amelia Harnish

After a busy morning in the pediatric cardiology clinic where she worked, Rachel Manalo, DO, was looking forward to her lunch break. It was a cherished few minutes to sit down and take a breath, which she relished at 18 weeks pregnant. But that day, her body just wouldn't relax.

"My heart was beating superfast, even when I was resting and paying attention to my body," Dr. Manalo says. "I immediately went to the ECG feature." Her heart rate was around 150 beats per minutemuch higher than her resting heart rate during pregnancy of roughly 80 bpm, and closer to what she'd expect during a workout.

As a cardiologist, Dr. Manalo knew this was unusual. Yet she also knew pregnancy can cause weird physical and biological changes. Shortly after, her heartbeat had slowed again. She asked a colleague to look at the Apple Watch data but didn't mention the incident to her ob-gyn. "The electrophysiologist I work with said to just continue monitoring it for now, because it only happened that one time," Dr. Manalo says. "I didn't want to worry my OB." But as her pregnancy progressed, the episodes kept recurring. Each time, she recorded it on her watch. At 33 weeks, she often felt dizzy and out of breath. One night after work, her heart raced for hours. "It would race for a minute, then calm down, then race again," she says. "I could see the pattern forming on my watch."

Dr. Manalo went to a cardiologist who, using hospital instruments, made a diagnosis that aligned with Dr. Manalo's Apple Watch data: ventricular tachycardia (VT), an abnormal heart rhythm that occurs when the lower chambers of the heart beat too quickly. VT can result from a structural issue in the heart at birth, or it can arise when heart cells spontaneously start producing an electrical impulse they're not supposed to. It is also a rare but known pregnancy complication.