An easy-to-use long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor allows continuous outpatient recording of heart rhythms, with the diagnostic accuracy of a Holter monitor.

The Appsens AS (Lillesand, Norway) ECG247 heart sensor is a wireless single-lead ECG monitor that consists of an electrode patch with a lightweight reusable sensor, a smartphone application, a back-end cloud service, and a web portal. The water-resistant sensor attaches over the sternum and continuously monitors heart rhythm for up to 14 days without the need for charging. All ECG recordings are sent via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication through an app on the patient’s mobile phone to secure Microsoft Azure cloud storage, with web-access for the user and for healthcare professionals.

The ECG247 algorithms automatically detect and categorize cardiac arrhythmias using a multiple-step algorithm that analyzes the QRS complex as an adaptive process to ensure reliable detection; identify the correct beat type, based on a machine-learning algorithm that distinguishes between normal beats, supraventricular beats, ventricular beats, and artefacts; and analyze the arrhythmias or changes in rhythm to detect atrial flutter (AF), low/high heart rate, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, and pauses.

“By detecting heart rhythm disorders early, ECG247 can help prevent serious complications such as stroke; 50,000 people [in Norway] with heart fibrillation are not aware of this because they have no symptoms,” said Tord Ytterdahl, managing director of Appsens AS. “At the moment, there is no product with the right technology that captures the large group of people who have this. Many people who feel palpitations from time to time can now easily test themselves.”

The original Holter monitor, named for physicist Norman J. Holter who invented telemetric cardiac monitoring in 1949, is a portable device for continuously monitoring various electrical activity of the cardiovascular system for at least 24 hours (often for two weeks at a time). Its extended recording period is useful for observing occasional cardiac arrhythmias which would be difficult to identify in a shorter period of time. 

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