It makes me think of the riddles we used to tell in elementary school. “I can be carried with you everywhere, used to communicate with others, used on humans and horses, and I diagnose serious cardiac problems. What am I?”
A recent study utilizing 54 patients reveiwed the AliveCor iPhone ECG. The iPhone ECG can be used for everything from consumer use, clinical diagnostics, to veterinary applications.
In the study, the participants were provided with a case and an app to use with their iPhone. Without receiving instructions on how to use the product, the participants were told to go and to record their ECG at least once per day. Over the course of eight weeks, about 1500 ECGs were recorded and transmitted—about 90% of which were clinically useful.
When asked about the veterinary applications, David Albert, MD, inventor of the device and chief medical officer of AliveCor says, “I can absolutely tell you that our product from the top of the veterinary cardiology, they find it extremely useful on dogs, cats, and even horses. The iPhone ECG is going to be used by veterninarians, by electrophysiologists, cardiologists, internists, family medicine doctors, ER doctors, EMTs, paramaedics, home health nurses, medics, and then by patients themselves,” Albert adds.
Perhaps the above riddle won’t stick with someone for 35 years like my personal favorite, “What’s black and white and red all over?” (a newspaper), but it certainly has more practical application in the real world.