It looks like a more elaborate chest strap for heart rate monitoring. And, yes, you can use it exactly for that purpose. Except, the Qardio Core is a medical-grade wireless ECG Monitor, which means it can perform a whole lot more than activity tracking duties.
A clinically-validated tool, the sensor can track your heart’s electrical activity, respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability, as well as record your skin temperature and perform basic activity tracking. Yep, it’s a veritable all-in-one that can be used both for highly-accurate activity tracking (that’s way more precise than your fitness band) and closely monitoring patients with actual health concerns.
Designed primarily for patients with heart ailments, the Qardio Core boasts clinically-accurate readings that can match the precision of medical-grade tools. It performs its monitoring in continuous fashion, so patients can use it to record their heart health stats all day, with all readings wirelessly transmitted to the companion app (iOS only) in real-time, so your doctors and healthcare providers can check on it at any time.
Features include IP65 rating for water resistance, so you can sweat on it and wear it in the rain without any issues, and a battery rated at one whole day of continuous operation. It measures 7.3 x 3.4 x 0.4 inches, with a strap that should fit chest sizes between 27.5 and 43 inches.
Slated to ship in April, the Qardio Core is priced at $449.