Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
ECG Transmission
4.1 Introduction
The last few decades witnessed tremendous developments in Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT), mainly in the area of public networks, speed
of access, data security, and accessibility of channels. A major application of ICT
is evidenced in tele-healthcare, which deals with transmission of medical data
from the subject to a remote place for storage and analysis. Tele-cardiology, a
special branch of telemedicine, involves transmission of patient's cardiac infor-
mation (ECG, echo images, catheter images etc.,) for remote-end acquisition,
analysis, interpretation by experts and feedback. The increasing quality and fidelity
of transmitted biomedical data added with user-friendly interfaces have provided
the opportunity of real-life experience of physical consultation with medical
experts. With the advent of VLSI technology, backed by high-end, low-power
processors, biomedical signals are now possible to be acquired in handheld devices
(like mobile phones, PDA etc.,) and often, transmitted to healthcare centre or
medical professional directly for expert advice and further actions through various
public networks. Thus, the healthcare service, empowered by various data com-
munication techniques is no more confined to healthcare clinics or hospitals. This
chapter provides a brief review of different ECG transmission techniques. Finally,
a prototype system developed as a low-cost alternative for providing tele-cardiology
service is described.
4.2 Review of ECG Transmission Techniques
Historically, the first instance of communication in healthcare took place at the end
of eighteenth century, when Willem Einthoven carried out experimentations on
patients' ECG transmission from the nearby hospital to his laboratory using post
office telephone lines. Although the technological developments have taken place
in manifolds since the Einthoven's era, the general principles of tele-ECG have
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