HeartMon [heart monitor system]

Monitoring a patient's heart activity is very important in the healthcare industry. Heart monitoring is often performed after a patient has a heart attack or stroke, after having heart surgery, and after being prescribed medications that could affect the heart. However, most heart monitors currently available, such as the Holter monitor, do not offer adequate functionality for many applications. To solve this problem, Biomedical Engineering Solutions is developing the HeartMon. This will be a pocket-size device that will measure the patient's heartbeat by means of three electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes. The ECG signal will be digitized by means of a microcontroller unit (MCU), which will then send the signal to the user's cell phone by means of Bluetooth. The MCU will also contain an accelerometer to track the user's activity, and this data will be sent to the cell phone as well. The cell phone will contain an application that processes the ECG and accelerometer data to determine if the user's current heart activity is acceptable for their current level of activity. If it isn't then the user's health professional will be notified immediately, at which point emergency personnel will come if necessary.