Overview

Coronary artery disease, the restriction of blood flow to the heart, is the leading cause of death in the United States. The chances of suffering a myocardial infarction are great and increase up to fifteen times after the first occurrence. During a heart attack, heart muscle is depraved of oxygen and will literally die if the artery remains blocked. The first few hours are critical in saving much of the dying heart muscle and preventing permanent heart damage. Unfortunately, the symptoms vary and the most common reason for critical delays in medical treatment is lack of early warning and patient unawareness.

Objectives

It is possible to detect the onset of a heart attack and eliminate patient error. Our device intends to benefit those at high risk and already receiving some form of surgical treatment. By implanting a chip into the body, the patient need not worry about device operation. The patient will only be required to carry a cell phone equipped with Bluetooth and GPS technology. When the implant detects a heart attack, it will alert the cell phone which in turn will automatically call for help and provide the patient’s location. The goal is to provide early heart attack detection so that the patient will be given medical attention within the first few critical hours, thus greatly improving his or her chances of survival.

Product Features

- Continuous monitoring of heart’s electrical activity
- Rapid detection of heart attacks
- Automatic call for medical assistance
- Identifies patient location to emergency personnel

Product Benefits

- Provides early detection of heart attacks
- Eliminates delays in receiving medical treatment
- Improves healthcare services to at risk population
- Saves lives and improves quality of living

Block Descriptions

Biosensors - Disposable Ag-AgCl ECG round pad electrodes are to be placed on each wrist of the patient. The electrodes are imbedded in pre-soaked electrolyte foam with double-sided peel-off adhesive tape for attachment. The foam provides good electrical contact with the skin and reduces motion artifacts. The electrodes “read” the heart’s electrical activity and outputs to the circuitry.

Microcontroller – The microcontroller is a BASIC Stamp 2 which will run a real time program to constantly monitor the output of the A/D Converter, comparing current data samples against stored samples. It will include an algorithm to process both the amplitude and frequency of the heart beat, to cover as many possible cases of a heart attack as reliably as possible. Once a heart attack is detected and confirmed, relevant data such as the time of occurrence will be collected, and a signal is sent to the Bluetooth Module to initiate the emergency dial up sequence via the cell phone.