Bluetooth heart monitor to save lives
1 min read
Cardiovascular disease kills almost 20million people each year, with around 22m people at risk of sudden heart failure at any one time. Lives can often be saved if acute care and cardiac surgery are carried out within the so called ‘golden hour’.
A Bluetooth heart monitor, described in the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, could text your local hospital if you are about to have a heart attack. The prototype device measures electrical signals from the heart, analyses them to produce an electrocardiogram (ECG) then sends an alert, together with the ECG, via a text message.
And, survival rates are on the increase as treatments improve. However, The device, developed by Thulasi Bai and SK Srivatsa of the Sathyabama University in Tamil Nadu, records periodically an ECG and transmits the information via rf to the patient’s mobile phone. The modified phone has an analyser circuit that checks the ECG for signs of imminent cardiac failure. If errant signals are detected, the phone alerts the patient and transmits a sample of the ECG signal to the nearest medical care centre, via SMS, together with patient details.
The researchers are now working on how to enable GPS functionality so the medical centre can more quickly pinpoint the patient.
