How to Export ECG Data from Apple Watch & Apple Health

Every time you press your finger to the Digital Crown and record an ECG on your Apple Watch, the resulting 30-second strip is stored in Apple Health together with Apple's classification, your average heart rate, the sampling frequency, and any symptoms you logged.

If your cardiologist, electrophysiologist, or GP asks to see a few weeks of those recordings - to investigate palpitations, follow up on an atrial fibrillation diagnosis, or review a course of treatment - the Health app only lets you share one PDF at a time.

This guide shows you how to export every ECG strip in your chosen date range as a single clinical-grade PDF, CSV, or JSON file using vitalina, a free iPhone app that reads your Apple Health data locally and generates a cardiologist-ready report in under two minutes.

Why Apple Health's built-in ECG sharing falls short

In the Apple Health app you can open a single ECG strip, tap Export a PDF for Your Doctor, and share one recording at a time. That works for a one-off check, but it falls apart as soon as you need a series of strips: every month of weekly AFib check-ins becomes four separate PDFs to attach, four file names to keep straight, and zero overview for the clinician.

You can also export all of your Apple Health data as XML, but the result is a giant Export.zip archive in which the ECG waveforms are buried alongside steps, sleep, and every other metric your iPhone has ever recorded - not readable by a human and not useful to a cardiologist.

vitalina solves this by reading your Apple Health data locally and letting you export every ECG strip in a chosen date range as one tidy PDF, CSV, or JSON file.

What you'll need

• An iPhone running iOS 18 or later
• An Apple Watch Series 4 or later with at least one ECG recording saved to Apple Health

Step 1: Download vitalina

Download vitalina from the App Store. It's free to use with no account or sign-up required.

Step 2: Allow access to Apple Health

When you first open vitalina, tap Allow Health Access and confirm the permissions in the Apple Health prompt. Make sure Electrocardiograms (ECG) is enabled in the permission list - it sits alongside heart rate and other vitals.

vitalina only requests read access; it cannot modify or delete your health data. Your data never leaves your device - everything is processed locally on your iPhone with no cloud uploads, no tracking, and no analytics.

Step 3: Pick a Quick Export template or create a custom export

On the main screen, you'll see a set of one-tap Quick Export templates. If you prefer full control over which vitals are included and the date range, tap Create Custom Export instead. The rest of this guide walks through the custom export flow.

Step 4: Select ECG

In a custom export, scroll through the vitals list - Blood Pressure, Blood Oxygen, Blood Glucose, Insulin Delivery, Body Temperature, Respiratory Rate, VO2 Max, Low and High Heart Rate Events - and tap ECG near the bottom. The selected check mark confirms every ECG strip in your chosen date range will be included.

If you also want context around each recording - resting heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, or workouts on the same days - tap them on the same screen and they'll appear in the same PDF.

Step 5: Pick a date range

Cardiology follow-ups tend to span a few weeks to a few months. vitalina lets you choose exactly how far back to go:

• Last 7 days and Last 14 days - available for free
• Last 30 days, 3 months, 1 year, and All time - available with vitalina Pro
• Custom date range - pick any exact start and end date with Pro

If your cardiologist asks for several months of ECG history to assess AFib burden, or you want to bring every strip since your last appointment, the Pro upgrade is a one-time purchase that unlocks all extended date ranges.

Step 6: Choose your export format

For ECG data, three formats each have a clear role:

• PDF: The right format for clinician appointments. Every strip is rendered as a full waveform on a classic red ECG grid at clinical scale, with the date, Apple's classification, average heart rate, sampling frequency, and symptom status above each trace. Email it, AirDrop it, or print it before your appointment.
• CSV: Opens in Excel or Google Sheets. Includes a per-strip summary section (date, classification, average heart rate, sampling frequency, measurement count, symptoms, source, device) followed by the raw time/microvolt measurements for each waveform - useful for custom analysis or importing into research tooling.
• JSON: Structured per-strip records with the full voltage waveform as compact { "t": …, "uV": … } samples - useful for piping the data into ChatGPT for analysis or another health app.

All three formats are available for free.

Step 7: Tap "Export Now"

Tap Export Now. vitalina reads every ECG strip in your chosen date range from Apple Health, renders each waveform on a clinical red grid, and generates your file - usually within a few seconds.

Step 8: Preview and share with your cardiologist

Once your export is ready, you'll see a full preview of the file - the cover page lists the date range and every ECG strip is laid out on its standard red grid with the recorded classification, average heart rate, sampling frequency, and any symptoms noted alongside.

If the rest of the report is overkill for a quick AFib follow-up, toggle Charts only at the bottom of the preview to hide summary stats and data tables - the ECG waveforms stay.

From here, tap Export to open the iOS share sheet, where you can:

• Email it to your cardiologist or care team before your appointment
• AirDrop or share via Messages to anyone nearby
• Save to Files on your iPhone or iCloud Drive
• Print a physical copy to bring to the clinic

What an Apple Watch ECG actually contains

Each ECG strip your Apple Watch records is a 30-second single-lead trace, sampled at roughly 512 Hz. The Apple Health app stores six pieces of metadata that vitalina surfaces in every export:

• Classification - Apple's own label, presented verbatim: Sinus Rhythm, Atrial Fibrillation, Inconclusive (Low Heart Rate), Inconclusive (High Heart Rate), Inconclusive (Poor Recording), or Inconclusive
• Average heart rate across the 30-second strip, in bpm
• Sampling frequency, typically around 512 Hz on current Apple Watch hardware
• Number of voltage measurements in the waveform (about 15,000 samples per strip)
• Symptoms - whether you tagged the recording with any symptoms in the Health app
• Source device - which Apple Watch recorded it

vitalina presents Apple's classification factually and never interprets or diagnoses your ECG. The waveform itself is drawn on a standard red grid at clinical scale (25 mm/s, 10 mm/mV) so your cardiologist can read it the way they would a paper strip.

Automate weekly ECG exports with Shortcuts

If you check in with your cardiologist on a regular cadence, you can pair vitalina with Siri Shortcuts to run the same ECG export on a schedule - no need to set it up by hand each time.

See the Shortcuts automation guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.

How much does vitalina cost?

vitalina is free with 5 unique exports and date ranges up to 14 days. vitalina Pro is a one-time purchase (no subscription) that unlocks unlimited exports, extended date ranges up to all time, and Shortcuts automation. Re-exporting the same configuration is always free.

Download vitalina free on the App Store →

Frequently asked questions