You'll also need an Apple Watch, Garmin, or OS smartwatch.

A heart health company cardiogram and an Oscar health insurer combine to allow Oscar members to control signs of diabetes and atrial fibrillation with wearable devices.



Participants will need an Apple Watch , Garmin, or Wear OS smartwatch to use the Cardiogram app, which will monitor for signs of both conditions in the background as users do their business day after day. If the device detects symptoms of any of them, users will receive a warning to receive confirmatory tests of a medical level, either a blood test in a nearby laboratory for diabetes, or a mobile ECG test (sent by mail) for atrial fibrillation.

These tests will be free, and if they confirm that the patients have a tendency to the disease, a cardiogram will help them take the next step to treatment.


Last year, as part of a study with researchers at UC San Francisco, a cardiogram confirmed that it can detect diabetes using modern wearable devices. This is the first time he has conducted this research in practice.

Co-founder Brandon Ballinger said they are currently receiving 97% accuracy for AFib and 85% for diabetes. However, it does not have FDA approval for both, and does not look to receive it. That's why it plays a more advisory role, encouraging users to look for confirmatory tests if it detects suspicious symptoms. According to Ballinger, the cardiogram will need to analyze at least one week of data before making any recommendations.



As for the future development of AFib tracking in the future, Ballinger suggests that the cardiogram may lean back from the FDA-approved Apple Watch ECG — if Apple ever makes the API available to developers. At the moment, he relies entirely on optical data.

“I think, based on the conditions that we do, you will always want to do standard medical tests,” Ballinger told me over the phone. “Not just for the purposes of the FDA, but also for how your doctor is going to interpret the results.”

This is not the first time we see technology companies teaming up with healthcare providers. This year, Apple partnered with Aetna, rewarding Apple Watch patients for healthy behavior. Fitbit also created several of its own partnerships. But the cardiogram and the Oscars come together in a way that we have not seen before, giving healthcare members the ability to view for specific conditions.

While the Apple Watch can track the signs of AFib itself, diabetes monitoring is a completely different game. People with diabetes often have low heart rate variability, which is one of the key factors that the cardiogram keeps an eye on.

As for how profitable it is, Oscar - the provider competes in the Obamacare market, where there is an incentive program that pays insurers for each member who receives the diagnosis. And Oscar pays a cardiogram to use its technology.

“The next step is to get out of the lab and sit on your wrist,” said Ballinger. Oscar healthcare members can download the Cardiogram app and link their bills starting today.