It used to be that you would go to the hospital to get an EKG measurement of your heart, now you can do it with a small set of pads that can stick onto your mobile phone.

To understand what an EKG is and how to interpret it watch this useful video here.

The company AliveCor have produced the unit. The Kardia brand name must have been derived from “Cardiac arrest? The unit can be bought here . Please read the online user reviews as it’s important to understand that this product is driven by “health needs” that is the customers have an important health issue that they have to monitor.

You place two fingers tightly onto the pads for 30 seconds and the measurement is done. That’s it. The App takes care of the rest of the service. You get 30 days free then you need to pay a subscription.

If you have any issues such as an irregular heartbeat the online system will pick them up and tell you that something is wrong. After the measurement the graph can be shared with your doctor. That’s if your doctor can receive emails from you. In the UK we aren’t there yet but in the United States the doctors do and I guess you may pay a premium for that. Here is a video of me measuring my heart rate and EKG.

Kardia offer a premium service where you can also enter your weight and blood pressure and get that analysed by a doctor online. After I took my EKG this morning I was offered a doctor’s analysis for £5 online see below.

 

whichwearable commentary on the Kardia device : This is the future of medicine. Imagine self diagnosing yourself with your mobile device and uploading your data to your online doctor for analysis. No don’t imagine, it is already here and active in America with this “Federally approved” device. It will take time to go to other regions such as the UK but it will come. A huge opportunity to manage the health data of individuals and a huge data protection challenge. This model works, this is the future of digital health.

whichwearble highlight : Seeing my EKG being drawn in front of my eyes.

whichwearable lowlight : A dystopian future where I fight to get the cheapest online health care knowing exactly what my symptoms are because AI and my mobile have told me what they are! Knowledge can be dangerous.