Phone-Powered EKG Monitor
Hospitals, clinics, and urgent care facilities in developed regions have access to a battery of medical instruments unavailable to healthcare professionals in developing regions. One example of such an instrument is the EKG monitor. EKG signals are used to diagnose a wide range of medical conditions but they are often unavailable in all but the most advanced hospitals in developing regions. We argue, in this section, that this need not be the case. Rather, any hospital,village clinic, or doctor can have access to advanced healthcare instruments for little more than the cost of a mobile phone.
Figure 1: Phone-powered EKG Interface
We illustrate our claim by designing a low-cost, low-power EKG monitor that uses HiJack for power and communications, and the mobile phone for visualizing the EKG waveform, as shown in Figure 1. The EKG monitor attaches to the square-inch form factor HiJack base node, and extends the PCB to provide space forconnectors to attach EKG leads in a 3-lead configuration. The EKG board draws less than 400 A, amplifies the input signal, passes it through a notch filter, and corrects for baseline drift. The mobile phone visualizes the EKG and can optionally transmit the data tothe cloud for storage or real-time remote display (including on another mobile phone or even a Facebook application). The EKG board led to an iteration in the HiJack base board whereby the baseboard now provides regulated power (and a wider electrical interface which is visible as perimeter pins in Figure 1.
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Hi there. Do you have any more information about this project? Are these units and software available to buy? I have an unusual heart condition and have been looking for a solution to gather lots of data about how my heart functions over a long period of time. I would then do various types of analysis on the data offline. It seems commercial ECG units are available that could do this but they are expensive. Yesterday I had the bright idea of turning an iPod/iPad into a simple EKD monitor and did some research on devices that could be used to take feeds from sensors and I came across the HiJack. Then (as with so many other bright ideas!
I came across your site it seems this has already been done by yourselves (and very well). So, I was wondering if this project has progressed any further and if I could be involved in the testing/devlopment at all? I have a technology/programming background – although haven’t written any apps as such. Anyway – any further information would be most welcome. Thanks, Martin