Requirements for ECG Patient Simulator

From: Paul Ingemi (pingemi_at_wpi.edu)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: 29 Oct 2004 12:00:05 -0700

Hell, my name is Paul Ingemi and I'm a student at Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (http://www.wpi.edu/).

I've been assigned to help design a low cost test device to verify the
proper operation of an ECG machine for use in developing nations. This
is a project sponsored by the Engineering World Health Organization
(http://www.ewh.org/).

Right now, I'm doing market research to determine the essential
features of such a device, and since doctors in third world countries
may be difficult to reach, I would appreciate any advice from doctors
from this newsgroup.

Me and my partners have reviewed some of the relevant literature about
the proper operation of an ECG machine, however since patient
diagnosis' performed using these machines are done visually, we do not
know what absolutely must be checked to make sure any visual diagnosis
will be valid.

If you have time, could you convey to me an understanding of:
     1) What essential operations of the ECG need to be tested.
     2) What failure modes have you seen your ECG machines exhibit? In
other words, in what ways do your ECG machines typically fail?
Especially in what ways do they fail such that they give an improper
reading.
     3) What sort of failures would not be easily detected by using
the ECG machine on a person.
     4) Are there any other reasons why testing an ECG machine on a
person would be undesireable?
     5) As a bare minimum, do we need to test every lead? How about
just one lead and ground strap? Or 2 leads that form a vector and the
ground strap? 3?
     5) Any features you feel are important in a device that tests ECG
machines.
     6) Anything else you would like us to know regarding product
requirements.

Also, if you would be willing to further correspond with us regarding
feedback for our design(s) for such a device, please let me know.

Thank you for your time, 

-- 
Paul Ingemi