Nov 16, 2016 11:41 AM EST By Audri Taylors, UniversityHerald Reporter

Heart diseases and stroke are one of the major causes of deaths in the world. As the former Google executive Vic Gundotra's father nearly died of a serious heart problem, he started running a firm called Alivecor which developed a device to monitor the conditions of the heart.

Kardia Band, a device launched by Alivecor, and is integrated with Apple's smart watch is designed to take and record a person's electrocardiogram or ECG. This device allows the user to track and analyze the health of your heart. Medical experts strongly believe that this device is incredibly helpful when it comes to saving lives of many patients with serious heart conditions.

A major cause of stroke called atrial fibrillation or AF can be spotted by Kardia Band. The only thing you have to do is to use your thumb to touch the device's sensor that communicates with the Watch App and it will be able to instantly detect the presence of an AF. It can also spot other conditions and it can check whether your heart rate and rhythm are normal.

"The problem with atrial fibrillation is that it's asymptomatic, which means it can come and go and often isn't diagnosed," says Mr Gundotra.

Ron Grant, a patient with a heart condition shared with BBC how he almost died due to AF. "At the age of 55, I had a massive heart attack - flatlined - had a bypass. It was some years after that we discovered I had AF - a funny heart rhythm to put it simply - which could lead to stroke".

Since then, he has been the mobile version of the device so that he can continue to keep tabs with his heart health.

"People start modifying their behaviour once they begin monitoring their own health," says Mr Gundotra.

"No-one's more interested in heart health than the owner of the heart."

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