AliveCor Heart Monitor

Amazing. US $199. http://www.alivecor.com/what-is-it

The AliveCor Heart Monitor provides individuals with the ability to track heart health anywhere, anytime at an affordable cost.

Those who can benefit include individuals with suspected or diagnosed heart conditions and health conscious individuals.



"Just as the introduction of thermometers and blood pressure cuffs in the past century helped patients to monitor their health, now the ability to record one's own electrocardiogram –and get an interpretation almost instantly - empowers the 21st century patient to take charge of their heart health."

Ronald Karlsberg, MD
Cedars Sinai Heart Institute
Cardiovascular Medical Group of Southern California
America’s Top Physician (2006), Consumers' Research Council

That's amazing! Especially for that price!

Interesting. Before I clicked on the link I was hoping it was something you could wear in your sleep and match up with a PAP download, but that's a bit optimistic for 200 bucks haha. Does anyone here that understands cardio stuff better than me know how accurately this could distinguish between various arrhythmias? Last year I started having issues with excessive PVCs, and a couple months ago during my ASV titration the doc said I had some PACs, but when I mentioned that was a first he said the software could have misinterpreted the PVCs. I see it's equivalent to lead 1 from an ECG but how much can you get from that one lead? Is this basically just a visual pulse checker or will it tell me I had a PVC, PAC, A-fib, etc?

I did some research and found that it is actually very well designed. Glowing reviews everywhere, even by legit medical component review sites. The only critical review I saw was from a doc at Johns Hopkins I think, and even they said the app and device was wonderfully designed and worked perfectly, they just weren't sure it was a good idea for many people. Seems they were afraid of healthy people freaking out and having unnecessary trips to the ER. Also afraid of people getting a false sense of security and ignoring heart attacks because their phone didn't show anything. With those precautions in mind, I think I'm going to get it.

Lead one on a regular EKG, hmmm. Not so sure for a patient, unless they've taken a class.
Awesome in the hands of a medical professional, to help reduce time to treatment and maybe
even unnecessary tests. Downright insane for a hypochondriac who skipped the class,
and went straight into panic mode; might even cause a heart attack!

Pasta wrote: Seems they were afraid of healthy people freaking out and having unnecessary trips to the ER. Also afraid of people getting a false sense of security and ignoring heart attacks because their phone didn't show anything. With those precautions in mind, I think I'm going to get it.

After you have some experience with it, will you let us know which of the two categories you fall in? (That is if you are still alive.)

Seems like overkill unless you have a specific heart issue and you are taught what to look for and what to do about it.

Meanwhile, there are several freebie heart devices that use the phone's LED flash light to detect heart rate. It's a nice little app to use when practicing relaxation techniques. I measure heart rate before and after.

I have one similar to this one

http://www.healthcare4home.com/personal ... fgodlY4A-w

and it works great once you figure out how to use it. My cardiologist compared the report produced with his device and said he could gain acceptable information from my "hobby" EKG machine.

I travel a lot and a few year back had some episodes of atrial fibrillation. I picked up this "hobby" EKG device to communicate my condition to my cardiologist while I was traveling and to provide evidence that I had reverted to normal sinus rhythm so he could stop worrying about me.

I also have the ankle and wrist leads and it is fun to look at the different displays from different parts of the body. I was thinking the ankle and wrist leads would be interesting to use during a sleep session but any movement screws everything up so I never was able to do that.

We also use this as an educational tool. My grandchildren love watching their heart beat and my daughter in law has PVC's that serve to show the children the difference between normal heart beats and PVC's.