Contributed Commentary by Stuart Long, CEO, InfoBionic.Ai
April 4, 2025 | Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) is a fast-growing public health crisis—three times more common than once thought. Today, at least 10.55 million US adults have AFib, far exceeding the 3.3 million cases researchers predicted for the year 2020 in 1996.
And this crisis is only growing. The death rate from AFib as a primary or contributing cause has been rising for more than two decades, with the risk of stroke, heart failure (HF), and hospitalization rising along with it.
Part of AFib’s danger is its elusiveness. Many cases go undiagnosed for years due to silent or intermittent symptoms. In addition, traditional ECGs often miss AFib, delaying treatment and increasing the risk of complications. AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring has the potential to counter this dangerous trend by enabling continuous, high-acuity cardiac monitoring, data-driven detection, and proactive intervention.
The Danger Zone: AFib’s Biggest Threats to Patients
AFib is a serious heart condition that often goes undiagnosed, with many patients suffering life-threatening complications before receiving treatment. Let’s explore some of the dangers AFib poses:
Silent and Intermittent Symptoms
AFib is often called the “silent killer” because many experience no noticeable symptoms—yet have a significant increase in their risk of life-threatening complications. Up to 40% of AFib cases are asymptomatic, and patients may unknowingly live with the condition for years. Without symptoms to prompt medical attention, diagnosis is often delayed until a serious event occurs.
In addition, intermittent AFib episodes often go undetected, as traditional ECGs provide only a brief snapshot of heart activity. Many patients remain undiagnosed despite regular checkups, as arrhythmia may not occur during office visits.
Increased Stroke Risk
AFib significantly elevates the risk of stroke, which is one of its most dangerous, yet preventable, complications. In fact, AFib makes a patient five times as likely to experience a stroke due to irregular heart rhythms disrupting blood flow. This causes clots that can travel to the brain, leading to an ischemic stroke.
Nearly 20% of AFib-related strokes occur before diagnosis, making early detection critical. Without early detection, patients may not receive necessary preventive treatments, like blood thinners, which can cut stroke risk up to 70%.
Frequent Hospitalizations & ER Visits
AFib not only takes lives; it also burdens the healthcare system by driving up costs and straining ERs. It’s estimated that AFib-associated hospitalizations cost $26 billion annually, with each hospitalization costing an extra $8,705. As AFib-related admissions continue to rise, it remains a leading cause of cardiovascular hospitalizations.
Symptoms like palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath can be alarming, prompting ER visits. However, many emergency hospitalizations can be avoided with earlier detection and proactive management. If AFib is caught early and monitored remotely, physicians can intervene before symptoms escalate, preventing unnecessary admissions.
Poor Treatment Adherence, Disease Progression, & HF Risk
Many AFib patients struggle with medication adherence, whether due to side effects, cost barriers, or lack of awareness about the condition’s severity. Studies show one-third of patients don’t take their prescribed medication correctly, increasing stroke and HF risk.
Standard treatment plans often fail to account for individual risk factors, leading to suboptimal care. If left untreated, AFib can progress to persistent or permanent arrhythmia, making it harder to manage and increasing the likelihood of invasive interventions like catheter ablation or pacemaker implantation.
Prolonged AFib weakens the heart, increasing the risk of HF by reducing its ability to pump blood effectively. Over time, AFib can lead to structural heart damage, further worsening disease progression and increasing cardiovascular mortality risk.
AI-Driven Solutions: A Breakthrough in the Reduction of AFib Risk
These challenges underscore why AFib is so difficult to diagnose and critical to treat. Let’s explore how AI-enabled remote cardiac monitoring has the potential to mitigate risk and improve outcomes AFib patients.
AI-Enhanced Continuous Monitoring Identifies Silent Symptoms
Silent and intermittent AFib episodes are a major challenge in detection. AI-powered solutions can identify these cases early. Clinical-grade cardiac telemetry devices equipped with AI can continuously monitor heart rhythms, detecting AFib quickly and accurately. One study showed an AI-enabled ECG correctly identified subtle patterns of AFib with 90% accuracy.
AI algorithms rapidly analyze large amounts of data to identify early-stage AFib, allowing for timely intervention before complications arise. Remote data analysis can send alerts to physicians when irregular heart rhythms are detected, ensuring patients receive timely care without needing an in-clinic visit.
Risk Stratification Reduces Chances of Stroke
AI-driven early detection plays a powerful role in reducing the high stroke risk associated with AFib. Early diagnosis through remote cardiac monitoring can help ensure high-risk patients begin anticoagulant therapy before a stroke occurs, significantly reducing the likelihood of disabling cerebrovascular events.
In addition, AI-powered risk stratification has the potential to assess an individual’s likelihood of stroke, tailoring anticoagulation therapy to their unique needs and medical history. And the continuous monitoring of heart rhythms allows physicians to track trends and detect early signs of worsening conditions, adjusting treatments proactively for stroke prevention.
Home-Based Care Management Reduces Hospital Visits
AI-driven solutions can transform how AFib is managed outside the hospital, reducing the need for emergency hospitalizations. Remote cardiac monitoring extends critical visibility from the hospital to the home, alerting providers of any signs of deterioration before emergencies arise.
The highest-acuity monitoring devices may also be able to reduce the length of hospital stays by enabling providers to extend clinical-grade monitoring outside the hospital and drive down avoidable readmissions. One study showed AI-enabled analytics helped a health system keep 200 patients from being readmitted, resulting in $5 million in cost savings.
Personalization Mitigates Disease Progression & Reduces HF Risk
AI can transform AFib management by creating data-driven, personalized care plans that help slow disease progression and prevent long-term complications. AI-powered insights enable providers to optimize medication regimens, lifestyle recommendations, and follow-ups, ensuring each patient receives care tailored to their unique situation and risk factors.
AI-powered remote monitoring also engages patients directly in their care, improving adherence to prescribed treatments and fostering awareness of habits and their impact on condition severity. Some practices see up to 36% higher adherence rates with AI-enabled remote monitoring. When a patient adheres to proactive interventions, they are less likely to experience deteriorating severity and complications.
Enabling Early AFib Detection for All
Today, AFib diagnosis relies on technology that may miss intermittent or asymptomatic cases. As a result, many patients go undiagnosed until serious complications arise. AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring has the power to shift this paradigm and reshape the standard of care due to its scalability, efficiency, and high level of acuity. By surfacing the indicators of AFib earlier, even among the asymptomatic, this technology has the potential to reverse the trend of rising AFib deaths.
The future of cardiology is proactive, not reactive. By embracing AI-enabled monitoring, the entire healthcare system can bring the power of proactivity to AFib detection, treatment, and outcomes.
Stuart Long has been the CEO of InfoBionic.Ai since March 2017. He underscores the company’s commitment to widespread market adoption of its transformative wireless remote patient monitoring platform for chronic disease management. With more than 25 years of experience in the medical device market, Stuart brings expertise in achieving rapid commercial growth. Learn more about remote cardiac monitoring at https://infobionic.ai. Stuart can be contacted at stuart.long@infobionic.com.