Development of an ambulatory ECG system based on Arduino and mobile telephony for wireless transmission

Abstract

The incidence of cardiovascular diseases is rising, so more people are requiring cardiac services. The private service is very expensive; hence the public health sector capacity is exceeded to accomplish this demand. A proposal to solve this problem is the implementation of a wireless network based on Bluetooth (BT) for recording, monitoring and analysis of electrocardiographic signals (ECG). Three surface electrodes are placed on the chest, following standardized points of triangle of Einthoven. The signals measured are amplified and filtered by components in a circuit and then they are carried to Arduino UNO card. The ECG signal is sent by BT from Arduino UNO to a mobile device carried by the user, so he can send it to a workstation where the ECG is processed or analyzed by an expert. This proposal would help the health sector to improve the quality of their service in the care of patients with heart diseases; also costs of health care would significantly decrease.