Researchers at Finland’s VTT Technical Research Center and Turku University Central Hospital have developed a mobile app that can detect an irregular heartbeat, overburdening and prolonged stress.
Dubbed the Beat2Phone, the device accurately measures the user's heart rate and heart rate variability, which could help prevent cerebral infarctions at an early stage, during asymptomatic atrial fibrillation, Science Daily reported.
Tests of the Beat2Phone, which is Android-compatible, have been conducted for the past 2 years by about 30 people, including some top athletes who have heart conditions.
"With the mobile device developed by VTT, users can register their ECG signal whenever arrhythmia or other heart symptoms occur,” Timo Varpula, a principal scientist at VTT, told Science Daily. “The device is also suitable for pre- and post-surgery monitoring of heart patients at home. There is no need for patients to visit a hospital, because the data is sent automatically from a mobile phone to medical staff via a cloud service.”
The device, which features position and activity sensors, measures ECG signals at a very high sampling rate, identifies individual heartbeats and counts the interval between consecutive beats.