Heart disease is still the number one cause of death in Indonesia. Furthermore, recently, heart attack not only attacks adults. In a certain cases, heart disease has already attacked people under 30. Therefore, the condition of hearth should always be taken care for since, sometimes, the symptoms of heart disease are not noticeably detected that it is also called as silent killer. One of the easiest ways to check the condition is by monitoring the condition of heart using Electro Cardio Graph (ECG). This device has been proven to be helpful for patient with heart condition or athletes taking medical checkup.
ECG is an signal as a result of the electrical activity of heart. It is taken by placing electrodes on a certain spots in our body. The signal from ECG is specific so that it can be used by a cardiologist in determining one’s heart condition. Therefore, the ECG signal is recorded by using an electrocardiograph device.
The monitoring of heart beat is usually conducted in a hospital equipped with standard ECG (Bed Side Monitor) facility, particularly for patient with heart disease. However, sometimes the patient or athlete to be examined feels bored if he has to stay on bed.It leads to an idea in creating portable ECG device.
This wearable mini ECG device has a modul to transmit the ECG signal. Later, the signal resulted from transmission will be displayed on an android based mobile device to be saved, managed or transmitted to other places for other purposes.
Mini Wireless ECG is different from the ECG at hospital (bed side monitor). Mini wireless ECG is in matchbox (5 x 5 cm) size using a 3-lead signal processing. Recently, this 3-lead Mini Wireless ECG has been formed into a prototype and been developed for further research, i.e. into a bigger 12-lead
Mini Wireless ECG.
3-lead Mini Wireless ECG has a similar function with a standard ECG used in medical field, including monitoring heart condition and heart rate. Furthermore, this ECG device is wearable. Inside the device, there is a Bluetooth module used to transmit the heart signal data that has been acquired from the body in the form of raw data to be further sent into Android based smartphone. The raw data is then reconstructed into a graphic as in the screen of standard ECG at hospital.
The function of this Mini Wireless ECG has not been as complex as a standard ECG. Standard (bed side monitor) ECG can either monitor heart and heart beat or diagnose a complex disease. However, a standard ECG is wire based and cannot be accessed online in a smartphone that it can only be displayed on a screen or printed in a piece of paper. On the other hand, Mini Wireless ECG can be
accessed online if the user wants to see his heart beat signal and form.
Requiring Calibration with Standard Device
Though the study in Mini Wireless ECG, which has already produced a prototype, has been accomplished and success, yet it still needs further development. It is because the studies particularly the ones related to medical field require a clinical test before they are passed for massive production and used by society and so does this 3 lead sized Mini wireless. The process includes the calibration of the device using similar standard device.
It is because though the signal from Mini Wireless ECG looks like similar to the signal from bed side monitor at hospital, the conformity of the signal acquired still needs a test. It is to avoid any mistake in the interpretation.
The calibration is aimed at finding the conformity of this device in terms of amplitude, voltage, delay, etc. As to see whether the device is already eligible or not, the calibration can be conducted by a particular institution focusing on calibration for medical devices. The other method is by purchasing a standard (bed side monitor) ECG as to see the amplitude, voltage, delay, and the features. However, purchasing this device is certainly not a simple thing and needs a lot of budget.
Another development is the process of designing (packaging) of Mini Wireless ECG. It should not only consider the function of Mini Wireless ECG but also its aesthetics, so that it can be publicly accepted. Likely, in the previous study, the design tends to be very simple taking plastic as the casing material, since there has not yet involved any other parties like Telkom Creative Industries School (TCIS) in creating an aesthetical design. However, 3D printer can also be used in the process as it may help the design to be more ergonomic and aesthetic.
Besides the hardware, further development for this device may be focused on the development of Android application so that it can be integrated in smartphone and desktop. The application used is also developed so as to be able to diagnose heart disease in real time as a standard ECG device.
Recently, the Android Mini Wireless ECG application uses NetBeans, while the hardware consists of Microcontroller Arduino Micro and Bluetooth module for data transmission. If we want to diagnose heart disease from the signal, Mini Wireless ECG can process it offline or not in real time, since it has to be saved and processed using Matlab before.
Though the device is still being under development, this 3-lead Mini Wireless ECG prototype has been able to be used for some trainings in heart monitoring in places where standard ECG devices are difficult to find as in Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat (Community Health Center) or so called Puskesmas in remote areas or by medical workers as nurses and student nursing students.
The output of this study has been published in two Scopus indexed international journals. The first study was entitled “Microcontroller-Based Mini Wearable ECG Design” published in INKOM LIPI journal while the second one was entitled Mini Wireless ECG for Monitoring Athletes’ ECG Signal
Based on Smartphone” published in IOSRJEN Indian journal which is also published as proceeding for international seminar.
Abstracted from a study entitled “Mini Wireless ECG untuk Atlit dan Pasien Jantung dengan Mobilitas Tinggi Berbasis Android” (“Android based Mini Wireless ECG for High Mobility Athlete and Patient with Heart Disease“) of Koredianto Usman, ST., M.Sc., Achmad Rizal, ST., MT., and Sugondo Hadiyoso., ST., MT
