How to detect heart disease with a smartphone
Finger on the iPulse
Scientists are touting a self-service heart monitor which transforms a smartphone into medical equipment, helping to diagnose cardio problems, while easing the fears of countless hypochondriacs.
The Smartheart claims to be the world's smallest hospital-grade ECG, measuring roughly the same size of an iPhone 4.
After connecting to an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device through Bluetooth, it monitors the heart and performing an electrocardiogram in 30 seconds. The user then has the option of transmitting that data to their doctor.
Smartheart's developer, SHL Telemedicine, hopes to "enhance patient quality of life and maximise reliability in heart attack safety."
So while using a mobile phone may indeed give you cancer, it can also be used to detect heart problems and prolong lives. Another one of life's paradoxes.
Smartheart is available this autumn with a free app to accompany. Prices for the device are yet to be confirmed. ®
COMMENTS
What we need ..
.. is a version with built in defrif, debr.., defrill. Never mind.
:-)
So the means to "detect heart disease with a smartphone" is ...
... by buying an external ECG? Think the article would have been better titled "How to detect heart disease with an ECG and any old device that can display the graphs." It's not the smartphone doing any detecting here, I was expecting to read about some clever app that listens to your heartbeat on the built-in microphone.
Surely...
... using this long-term ensures that brain cancer will get you first?
Good news/bad news from your doctor!!
Dear Sir or Madam:
It is with great joy that I tell you that the EKG your smart phone sent me conirms that you are at the peak of cardio-vascular health. However, exposure to cell phone radiation has left you with multiple tumors on your lungs. Please report to my office next week for a biopsy!
A similar product
I don't know if it's hospital grade quality, but there is a similar one to this already on the market:
BioHarness BT
http://www.zephyr-technology.com/bioharness-bt
which you can purchase for about $800 (with Software Development Kit) and it looks smaller to me than the one in your article.
