Apple Watch's health app can help detect heart irregularities

An app on the Apple Watch can help identify a symptomless heart irregularity with 97% accuracy, according to the Heart Rythm Society. 

Diagnosing atrial fibrillation - a heart defect that causes an unusually high heart rate and is the leading cause of strokes - has been difficult as most sufferers show no symptoms of the condition.

Cardiogram monitored 6,000 participants in a study with the University of California to train and perfect its algorithm to detect and predict atrial fibrillation. 

This could be the first step in the transition of Apple Watch from cool tech showpiece to a must-have health gadget, with reports that future Watches could feature glucose monitoring through sensors on smart watch bands.

30 million people suffer from diabetes in the US alone, whilst the current blood monitoring tactics involving pricking a finger with a lancet and using test strips and a meter to get a reading is intrusive. 

A technological development that could automatically detect when blood sugar is too low or too high just by wearing a watch strap is thought to be a priority for Apple, after they hired around 200 PhDs over the past year to help push the health aspect of Watch.