Review of Kardia Band Mobile ECG for Apple Watch

The skeptical cardiologist has been evaluating the Kardia Band from AliveCor which allows one to record single lead medical grade ECGS on your Apple Watch. What follows is my initial experience with setting up the device and using it to make recordings.
After ordering my Kardia Band for Apple Watch on 11/30  from AliveCor the device appeared on my door step 2 days later on a Saturday giving me most of a Sunday to evaluate it.

What’s In The Box

Inside the box I found one small and one large black rubber wrist watch band
The larger one had had a small squarish silver metallic sensor and the smaller one had a space to insert a sensor. It turns out my wrist required the smaller band and it was very easy to pop out the sensor and pop it into the smaller band.
After replacing my current band with the Kardia band (requires pushing the button just below the band and sliding the old band out then sliding the new one in) I was ready to go.
The Eternal  fiancée did not complain about the appearance of the band so I’m taking that to mean it passes the sufficiently stylish test. She did inquire as to different colors but it appears AliveCor only has one style and one color to choose from right now.
I have had problems with rashes developing with Apple’s rubbery band and switched to a different one but thus far the Kardia band is not causing wrist irritation.

Set UP

I didn’t encounter any directions in the box or online so I clicked on the Kardia app on the watch and the following distressing message appeared.
Prior to 11/30 Kardia Band only worked in certain countries in Europe so I suspected my AliveCor app needed to be updated.
I redownloaded the Kardia app from the Apple App Store , deleted it off my Watch and reinstalled it.
I was thrilled when the app opened up and gave me the following message

However, I was a little puzzled as I was not aware that setting up Smart Rhythm was a requirement to utilize the ECG recording aspect of Kardia Band. Since I have been granted a grandfathered Premium membership by AliveCor I knew that I would have access to Smart Rhythm and went through the process of entering my name and email into the Kardia app to get this started.
Alas, when the Watch Kardia app was accessed after this I continued to get the same screen. Clicking on “need help” revealed the following message:
Bluetooth was clearly on and several attempts to restart both the watch and the iPhone app did not advance the situation.
I sent out pleas for assistance to AliveCor.
At this point the Eternal Fiancee had awoken and we went to Sardella for a delightful brunch . I had this marvelous item:

Eggs Benedict Raviolo, Mortadella, Bread Ricotta, Egg Yolk, Brown Butter Hollandaise, Potatoes 15.

At this point it worked and I was able to obtain my first recording by pushing the record ECG button and holding my thumb on the sensor for 30 seconds.

The Smart Rhythm component has also been working. Here is a screen shot of today’s graph.

Comparison of the Kardia Band recording (on the right) versus the separate Kardia device recording (on left)  shows that they are very similar in terms of the voltage or height of the p waves, QRS complexes and T waves. 

I felt a palpitation earlier and was able to quickly activate the Kardia Watch app and make a recording which revealed a PVC.