CardioNet Inc., a company based in San Diego, has developed a wireless technology to monitor heart patients. According to this Computerworld article, the technology was "originally developed by Qualcomm Inc. to track and send messages to large truck fleets."
CardioNet's service is initially focused on the 2 million U.S. people suffering from arrhythmia.
CardioNet developed a proprietary PDA-type electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring device connected by a short-range wireless system operating in the unlicensed 900-MHz band to electrodes on a patient's chest. The PDA receives signals from the electrodes and then transmits the data to CardioNet over a hard-wired telephone system if the patient is at home or through a built-in cell phone chip if the patient is out. CardioNet technicians monitor the data for signs of the heart fibrillation and pass the information onto the patient's doctor.
Here is a diagram showing how the system works (Copyright CardioNet 2002). Additional details can be found on this CardioNet page.
The company, which was using Digital Packet Data (CDPD) technology, has switched to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to be able to use the OmniTRACS truck-fleet tracking and messaging system from Qualcomm Inc. "That system handles 7 million messages per day from 479,000 trucks."
This service is only available in certains areas, namely in Pennsylvania, Indiana and metropolitan Washington and New York. And it already proved to be useful.
Dr. Peter Kowey, assistant chief of cardiovascular disease at Main Line Health in Bryn Mawr, Pa., said the CardioNet system helps clearly identify patients susceptible to major cardiac-rhythm abnormalities. "It has saved lives," he said.
Source: Bob Brewin, Computerworld, August 14, 2003
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