ECG Screening

Overview

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of global mortality. The world health organization (WHO) estimates to 17.5 million people that died from CVD in 2005 (30% of death worldwide!). The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the classical tool used in order to screen for CVD. However, classically patients have visit a hospital to undergo an ECG analysis, which may be particularly difficult in underserved area because of distance, cost, availability, lack of expertise. Remote ECG recording performed by minimally trained workers has been suggested as a possible solution, however, it is still facing important challenges. Chief among them are ensuring consistently high quality of acquisition, reliable transmission of recordings to analysis centres and systematic integration into an electronic medical record system (EMR).

Project description

In this project we are developing a smart phone application and associated algorithms that will allow acquisition and real-time processing of the ECG signals. Smartphones are powerful tools that offer both computational and communication opportunities that can benefit healthcare. After the signal is recorded, its quality is automatically assessed. If deemed too low the user is prompted to re-take the recording. The recorded signal can then be reviewed on the screen and manually annotated (quality, rhythm type). It is then transmitted to an EMR for further review by experts.

Key features

automated signal quality assessment

phone application: ECG annotation and remote transmission to electronic medical record system

EMR interface for clinical review