Perform ECG test with a Cell Phone

Things are become much simpler with  advancement in technology and to make life easier and less complicated, An IIT professor and his student has come with a combination of Smartphone application and device which can record user’s heartbeat and pulse rate, do ECG and tell if one needs to consult the doctor or not.

All one has to do is download the Application on the Phone and buy the device which include a stethoscope, a small box and a bunch of leads. A patient can attach the stethoscope or the leads to the box according to what he wants and connect the lead coming out of the Box to the headphone port of the phone.

The ecg reading is displayed on the phone screen after checkup which the patients can also E-mail, SMS or MMS them to their Doctor. After 3-years of rigorous research, Goutam Saha (Professor of Electronics and electrical communication in IIT kharagpur) and his Research student Ashok Mandal has come up with the invention. “No Special training is required to use the technology. Theirs is an instruction leaflet and the user just has to follow it”, Professor Saha said.

According to the inventors, those using basic handsets can also use the facility but those having Smartphones can get the readings quicker. The Application for the invention’s intellectual property right, to be owned by IIT-kharagpur, has been recently filed.

“The discussion with a medical-equipment fracturing company based in US and Kolkata is on. It is interested in commercializing our cardiac analysis portfolio. We are planning to add diagnostic features after multi-centre trials”, Saha said.     

The problem is that the medical equipment typically used to perform the test is expensive and bulky, making it impractical for people who lack money and access to hospitals. Even the growing field of telemedicine, which allows doctors to examine patients remotely via computers and the Internet, is impractical for many people in developing countries who need care the most. What these patients do have, perhaps surprisingly, is cell phones. In fact, in India today, more people have access to cell phones than have access to toilets. So this technology can play a vital role in life of huge population which faces money problems and faces difficulty in undergoing through these Tests.