Worldwide, over 300 million electrocardiograms (EKGs) are performed each year, with one-third of those taking place in the United States. Despite being so widely used, the technology of EKGs has been unchanged for decades. Research from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine shows that a newly-developed wireless EKG patch is as accurate, if not more accurate, than results from traditional EKG machines.
The device, known as the EKG Patch Solution, was developed by the Cincinnati-based MG Medical Products. Study findings are published in Clinical Research in Cardiology . The study's lead author, Richard Becker, MD, professor of medicine in the UC College of Medicine, says the patch is easier for medical staff to correctly attach to patients and less likely to display misrepresentations of important information when reading the electrical activity of the heart.
"It's easy to use and can consistently be placed on the chest without a complicated learning curve for medical staff," says Becker, also a cardiologist at UC Health, the university-affiliated health care system. "We also found that the likelihood of an artifact which is due to one of the leads not being placed correctly or as firmly as it should be, was 50% less likely to occur. Having a high quality EKG is essential to diagnostic accuracy and achieving good health outcomes.
" Becker says Patch EKG has an all-in-one design with built-in lead wires attached to pre-positioned electrodes for easier placement on the .