A smartphone based telemedicine system for recording limited lead body surface potential maps

In this paper we describe the development of a limited lead BSPM system which is based around a commercial 12-lead ECG acquisition unit and a smartphone. We repositioned the six precordial leads to allow for better information capture and hence more accurate reconstruction of BSPMs. The new lead positions were chosen using a data mining based lead selection algorithm. We developed two specific lead sets, one optimized for QRS monitoring and one optimized for ST segment monitoring. The 12-lead ECG device used is a commercially available system which is designed to capture the 12-lead ECG and transmit it via Bluetooth to a standard personal computer. The personal computer can then be used to store, display or print the recorded ECG. For our purpose we have replaced the personal computer with a Microsoft Windows Mobile based smartphone. To achieve this, software has been developed which allows the smartphone to capture the information from the 12-lead ECG device and store it on a removable solid state memory card. The software was developed using Visual Basic .NET and is designed to run on any device supporting the .NET Compact Framework. Further work is required to refine the developed software to support enhanced visualization and storage of the recorded data.