A&D Heart Track

UPDATE:. Apparently, you are supposed to click on + Measurement and not Start. When I do that, it works just fine. Instructions should be clearer in the manual. Rating increased - seems to work well but one fewer star due to lack of clear instructions. OROGINAL: Doesn't send info to iPhone: I paired, waited to see "End" per instructions, then the monitor turns off - disconnecting from Bluetooth. So I press Start to turn on the power & and it takes a blood pressure reading while disconnecting from Bluetooth. So I keep it on while navigating to my phone's Bluetooth settings to reconnect it, and it will connect, but when I press Start to take another reading, the monitor turns off, disconnecting from Bluetooth. Repeat 5 times before leaving this review. So disappointing!

This app provides a critical function for those of us who must monitor our blood pressure and report it. But it falls short on being really useful in recording and trending data. (1) the interface between the machine and the app is wonky. It seems like the only way to make it transfer the BP reading is by starting the read event on the app (push the “+Measure” button). But we can’t always have the phone handy and app open. The instructions say that readings taken when not synching will translate at the next paired sync, but this doesn’t always happen so some measurements are lost. (2) The company, thus the app, assumes that all BP measurements will be taken exactly as the coaching screen displays, that is seated with arm rested. But practically, this is not always how a person takes their BP. Yes I know that seated, arm resting is the standard of practice in the office, but patients don’t live in the office and taking it under different circumstances doesn’t invalidate the measurement. For instance, our doctor wants us to take a reading “before getting out of bed in the morning”, or I may have just exercised, or I may not be feeling well at the time of the BP measurement. There is no way to annotate for that specific measurement what was going on differently at the time. This is a feature present in other companies apps which is sorely lacking here.(3) The export data function only allows exporting a table, but it should also allow exporting of a trend graph. Many physicians use pattern recognition to scan data looking for variation, and not being able to export a graph doesn’t allow use of that technique. Of course if I must have a table, the table should be able to include comments, but this function isn’t available as noted above. (4) allowing the user to delete a measurement without commenting why is dangerous because patients can scrub the data in a way that could allow the physician to draw different conclusions from it. Again, a required comment field needs to be present if deleting and deleted data should show up separately on any exported report. Hopefully, A&D considers these enhancements which would be really pretty easy from a programming perspective and would greatly improve the utility of this app. Until then, I can’t give more than 3-stars for being average.

The heart tracker’s use is easy and seemingly accurate as well when compared to the monitor’s at the doctors’ offices (which are supposedly regularly verified). What stands out is the record keeping in retaining the readings and the ability to show them when needed.