COLUMBUS, Ohio - Most Americans who track their heart health with a smart device are not sharing that data with their doctor, according to a new national survey.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center commissioned the survey of 1,008 Americans and found nearly two-thirds use a device regularly to monitor their heart health, but only one in four use that data to start a conversation with their doctor about their heart health.

Cardiologist Laxmi Mehta, director of Preventive Cardiology and Women's Cardiovascular Health at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, encourages patients to share what their devices are capturing. She says it could help identify heart issues and prevent heart attacks and strokes.

"These self-monitoring devices are really helpful to patients and their healthcare providers because they can potentially catch things early," Mehta said. "For example, if patients are monitoring their blood pressure at home and notice it's been going up over time, they may want to discuss it with their doctor sooner rather than waiting for their annual visit. Or they may capture some irregular heart rhythms on their devices, like atrial fibrillation, much sooner than would be diagnosed at the doctor's office."

Mehta said a normal heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute without exercise and that heart rates can vary due to heart conditions or non-heart-related reasons such as infection, dehydration, anxiety or thyroid disorders. When someone's heart rate or rhythm seems different than usual, she said it is best to speak with a doctor.

If someone feels any irregularities, Mehta said those can be recorded on a smartwatch and sent to a doctor. Many smartwatches connect to apps on a phone, allowing users to record an EKG and send it through MyChart or a similar app.

"When they're feeling these, they just have to capture their heart rhythm and then they can send it to us electronically through the patient's electronic medical health records, and we can assess something pretty quick," Mehta said.

The survey was conducted Dec. 16 through Dec. 18, 2024, among 1,008 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.