Heart Rate and Auscultation Device-

The product is a chest strapped medical device with dual ability of being a highly sensitive heart rate monitor while the strap is embedded with multiple audio sensors to detect heart problems through auscultation.

Cardiac arrhythmia, also known as cardiac dysrhythmia or irregular heartbeat, is a group of conditions in which the heartbeat is irregular, too fast, or too slow. It is a symptom of stroke, cardiac arrest or other heart problems. It affects 10 million people each year in India alone. Detection of arrhythmia early can lead to timely diagnosis of any underlying problem saving millions of lives.

Heart Auscultation is the method of diagnosing heart problems through listening to sounds made by the heart. This is used to detect multiple problems such as stenosis and regurgitation which indicate improper heart function.

The device has two primary functions

First - measuring heart rate and checking for arrhythmia. This is done using an ECG sensor which measure the bio-potential generated by electrical signals that control the expansion and contraction of heart chambers. This sensor sends the analog data to a microcontroller which processes it. The data is saved on the local storage and it also sends it over Bluetooth to pairing devices.

Second – The device houses multiple acoustic type chest piece sound pickups from where the sound is amplified and recorded by microphones. The sound then undergoes sound processing- amplification and filtering, which removes ambient noise measured by external microphones and in functionality is similar to modern day noise cancelling device. Sound is picked up from the Mitral, Tricuspid, Pulmonary and Aortic areas of the heart.

The target of the device is to improve health through technology. It can help doctors remotely monitor a patient’s condition which can drive down cost of healthcare. It can also be worn by healthy adults who may be prone to such problems due to their medical or genetic history. As the product is simple to wear and weighs a small amount of around 100 grams it is a sound investment. Furthermore the ability to analyse data and predict problems can be made available through software and data analysis using the processing power of modern day smartphones. This would lead to improved healthcare in the society while also increasing the data available to doctors to improve quality of their diagnosis. All data collected from these devices can be analysed as big data which will allow computers to read patterns and predict problems in current users which shows the massive potential of the device.