Share your heartbeat for a good cause

- Companies Happitech, Arrythmia Alliance and Bug Labs announce the launch of the Heart For Heart initiative. Heart for Heart invites people to participate in the world's largest and first cancer-sponsored heart health initiative.

Participants contribute by measuring and sharing their heart rate with the free Heart for Heart app for the iPhone. This allows scientists to conduct better and faster research with the aim of establishing atrial fibrillation at an earlier stage.

Atrial fibrillation or atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac arrhythmias, with the heart rate irregular and usually too high. In the Netherlands, it is estimated that 300,000 people with this condition. The condition can sometimes lead to a life-threatening situation such as stroke or heart failure. Determining the rhythm disorder is sometimes difficult because the condition at the onset of the disease is often only briefly present. Participants in Heart For Heart decide which information they share via the app. The data is then merged, anonymized and shared with the researchers.

'You can compare it with donating money to a charity. Only Heart at Heart donates 90 seconds of your heart rhythm. Scientists try to distinguish between the atrial fibrillation and a regular heart rate using the smartphone technology. The data that generates Heart For Heart accelerated the development in technology that is used to allow accurate and rapid research into a rhythm disorder. By donating you contribute to important research on atrial fibrillation, 'says Yosef Safi Harb, founder of Happitech, about the special initiative.

'The Heart For Heart initiative accelerates the development of reliable heart rate analyzes using a smartphone. It would be a great step forward if patients at any time of the day, anywhere in the world and without additional hardware, themselves can diagnose their heart rhythm disorder and discuss it with their physician. If this technique proves successful, this changes the way we work as cardiologists, 'said cardiologist Robert Riezebos.

The Heart For Heart app is free to download from Apple's App Store.