A medical system (10) and method detect arrhythmic events. The medical system (10) includes at least one processor (28, 34, 50) programmed to perform the method. A photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal generated using a PPG probe (12) positioned on or within a patient (14) and a pulse signal generated using an accelerometer (38) positioned on or within the patient (14) received. Features from the PPG signal are extracted to PPG feature vectors, and features are extracted from the pulse signal to pulse feature vectors. The PPG feature vectors are correlated with the pulse feature vectors, and correlated PPG feature vectors and correlated pulse feature vectors are evaluated to detect arrhythmic events.
