Heart Monitoring Goes Mobile, St. Jude Medical Study

For decades, the standard in mobile heart monitoring was a bulky device with wires and electrodes that connected to the patient. Patients wore these Holter monitors for one day, perhaps two, in order to record arrhythmias. Though Holter monitors did not replace 12-lead electrocardiograms, they gave doctors a way of capturing a record of a patient’s heartbeat outside of a clinical setting. But Holters are not without problems. Bulky and cumbersome, many patients dislike them, and clinicians see diagnostic limitations in these devices, as well. Holters record heartbeat data for only up to 48 hours—if patients manage to keep the devices on that long.

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