Wireless Smartphone Electrocardiogram Monitors Heart Health

A credit card sized wireless device that connects to a smartphone helps physicians and health care providers obtain electrocardiograms (ECGs) to assess their patients’ cardiac health.

The AliveCor smartphone ECG is an investigational medical wireless device, which incorporates electrodes into a case that snaps onto the back of a smart phone, allowing for wireless single-lead recording of 30-second rhythm strips that are stored securely in the cloud and on the device itself. The ECGs are wirelessly downloaded for immediate interpretation using a variety of browsers. The AliveCor smartphone ECG is a product of AliveCor (Oklahoma city, OK, USA), and designed to work in conjunction with a range of mobile platforms, including the iPhone, the iPad, and Android devices.

“The implications of this technology for improving public awareness of health metrics and for early diagnosis of arrhythmias could be beneficial for physicians, their patients, and for payers,” said David Albert, MD, founder and chief medical officer of AliveCor. “Current monitoring systems for diagnosing arrhythmias are cumbersome, result in an inefficient use of health care resources, are subject to inaccuracy due to lack of patient compliance and fail to reach many patients who need better monitoring.”

In a study that examined the clinical implications of the device, 54 participants were enrolled to determine how they use the device, and were reviewed daily. After using the device, 24% of the subjects reached out to their private physicians for a consultation, and 16% felt that they discovered a health condition previously unknown to them; 75% of participants requested continuation of the device usage after the eight-week study period. In all, 33% felt that they were more health conscious after participating in the study and 88% thought that the device was transmitting accurate information. The study was presented as a poster session at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual scientific sessions, held during March 2012 in Chicago (IL, USA).

“The study provided us with important information required to optimize the device for physician and patient application,” said coauthor and study presenter Leslie Saxon, MD, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Southern California Center for Body Computing (CBC; Los Angeles, USA). “This device incorporated into smartphones and tablets provides physicians and their patients with a clinical-quality, low cost heart monitor that will increase the global availability of advanced cardiac monitoring.”

Related Links:
AliveCor
University of Southern California Center for Body Computing