New phone app will give cardiologists remote access to EKG results
Picture this: You’re in the hospital, attached to an electrocardiograph machine, and your cardiologist is about to tee off on the 16th hole.
A new iPhone app will let the doctor call up your EKG results right there.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of several large hospitals nationwide that are rolling out an application allowing cardiologists to view electrocardiograph results via iPhones and iPads.
The technology, created by AirStrip Technologies in San Antonio and scheduled for release Monday, allows doctors to remotely analyze a range of EKG data. Previously, clinicians typically could access the information only at computers in hospitals or medical offices.
The technology could be used in emergency situations to enable a specialist or a patient’s personal doctor to immediately view EKG results.
“It could be a Sunday afternoon and an expert opinion is needed right [away], and this makes it possible,” said David Ataide, general manager of patient care solutions at GE Healthcare, which makes the underlying EKG data system.
An EKG gauges the electrical activity in the heart and is used to detect arrhythmias and other heart-related irregularities.
Cedars-Sinai already uses AirStrip technology for fetal monitoring and will introduce the EKG application in the next 30 days, said Darren Dworkin, the hospital’s chief information officer.
