Originally published December 27 2005
Over-the-phone heart monitor save lives
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The EKGuard records two minutes of heartbeats with three electrodes attached to the body. Those heartbeats are then played back through the phone to a 24-hour call center. It should work with cell phones in about two years.
By providing expert medical opinion at the touch of a button, EKGuard aims to drastically cut the time between a heart attack and a patient's arrival at a hospital -- crucial hours that could mean the difference between life and death.
EKGuard chief Jay Lichtenstein says the device is aimed at victims of earlier heart attacks, people with a family history of heart disease, or people concerned over recent chest pain.
EKGuard uses three electrodes attached to the body to record two minutes of heartbeats, which are then played back down any ordinary phone line to a 24-hour call center as a series of computer bleeps.
Software at the other end transforms it into a standard hospital-style cardiograph reading to be compared with the patient's medical history, which EKGuard will already have on file.
"It is a simple and easy way to find out if there's a problem, and for patients, it's an incredible peace of mind," Lichtenstein says.
The service is currently only available in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but the company says it intends to roll out a nationwide U.S. service and possibly expand overseas.
Over the next two years it will also work on Bluetooth capabilities for the device, so it can interact directly with a cell phone or PDA.
Although EKGuard has yet to face its first full emergency, Lichtenstein says a similar system already up and running in Israel and serving up to 60,000 patients has already saved thousands of lives.
Several other countries also offer the service, which was approved for use in the U.S. in 2000, but held up by legal and practical wrangles over the development of the call centers.
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