ECG Acquisition in a Computer - ECG Acquisition and Automated Remote Processing - page 76

specialists periodically and remote checkup from clinics. In [ 18 ], the authors report
a web-based system implemented for remote monitoring of vital signs (like ECG,
respiration, invasive and non-invasive BP, SpO 2 ) from a bedside monitor, the IP
address of which was obtained from a patient locator service. The patient locator
service provided the basic patient information like hospital, ICU/CCU, bed
number, etc. This was accessed from the central monitoring server using a message
exchange service. The doctor at the server could access any patient's data in real-
time environment. An extension of this service is described in [ 19 ] where the
doctor can instruct the remote attendants near the patients for clinical actions and
administer treatments. Here, two different doctors, sitting at different locations can
talk with each other in real time with patient's vital signs displayed on their
computer screen. Development of a remote diagnosis system using public network
is described [ 20 ] for monitoring a patient at his daily life. A short-range wireless
patient module acquired the ECG and transmitted to a local desktop PC, which
again transmitted the same to a remote-end computer using integral services digital
network (ISDN) telephone network at a speed of 128 kbps. Along with this, the
patient's voice and moving image was transmitted using H.120 video conferencing
data compression regulation. A detailed architectural description of web-based
ECG monitoring is described in [ 21 ]. Another web-based application for remote
computerized processing is described in [ 22 ]. The system provides a user-friendly
interface developed in HTML and MATLAB to access patient's ECG (raw or
compressed format) from a remote node (local acquisition PC) and analyze the
signal using advanced computational techniques. The analysis results are sent back
to the user end PC. MATLAB web server toolbox was used for developing the
interface application with the server and MATWEB program was used for com-
munication with MATLAB. A framework for multiple patients monitoring in a
web environment using the concept of medical information system (MIS)-ECG is
described in [ 23 ]. A central database server stored, organized, and managed the
patient's ECG picked up from different hospitals using onboard network interface
controller (NIC) installed on the hardware acquisition board. This allows a direct
TCP/IP conversion of ECG data using a Rabbit microcontroller (RCM2200 core)
from the patient module. For patients with significant cardiac abnormalities, an
internet-based ECG evaluation and follow-up system is described in [ 24 ]. The
patient's ECG was compared with prestored validated ECG database containing
five major classes and subclasses. The best match was found out with 50 data, and
a histogram is constructed with diagnostic probabilities. This provided a suitable
quantitative assessment of the unknown ECG. A continuous monitoring system
using GSM network for arrhythmia patients is described [ 25 ]. The patient's ECG
(2-channel) along with pacemaker and SpO 2 were picked up in a mobile phone
through an ECG telemetry transmitter (Danica Biomedical make T3300) using RS-
232 protocol. The mobile phone transmitted the ECG beats to a remote Teleguard
modem server at a speed of 3600 bps. CRC error check and sequence numbers
were generated automatically for missed packet estimation. A store and forward
type tele-cardiology application in Portugal reports use of standard email services
is reported [ 26 ].