Since its debut last year, the iPhone ECG has proven its worth by diagnosing previously asymptomatic patients and college athletes.

Terry Chan/Shutterstock

An initial study of the iPhone ECG — which we’ve covered since its popular YouTube video was released last year – was presented at this past week’s American College of Cardiology 61st Annual Scientific Sessions in Chicago. the highly anticipated device is pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, though questions have abounded about how exactly it will be applied. for example, will it predominantly be used by patients, emergency responders, and/or clinicians, and what diagnostically useful information can be obtained from it?

Entitled “iPhone Rhythm Strip: Clinical Implications of Wireless and Ubiquitous Heart Rate Monitoring,” the new eight-week study enrolled 54 participants and has begun to answer these and many other questions. According to the company:

After using the device, 24 percent of subjects reached out to their private physicians for a consultation and 16 percent felt that they discovered a health condition previously unknown to them. Seventy-five percent of participants requested continuation of the device usage after the eight-week study period. Thirty-three percent felt that they were more health conscious after participating in the study and 88 percent thought that the device was transmitting accurate information. Participants indicated that they found the portability, ease of use, and the form factor to be key aspects of the device that were most conducive for use.

“The study provided us with important information required to optimize the device for physician and patient application,” commented Dr. [Leslie] Saxon. “This device incorporated into smartphones and tablets provides physicians and their patients with a clinical-quality, low-cost heart monitor that will increase the global availability of advanced cardiac monitoring.”

We reached out again to the device’s inventor, Dr. David Albert, and he provided the following anecdotes of how the iPhone ECG has been used:

We have diagnosed ventricular tachycardia in a previously asymptomatic 35-year-old man. We have diagnosed a new case of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome in a 41-year-old man, who is now being ablated. We have diagnosed paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in a 20-year-old college athlete who had been blown off by her coaches. We have diagnosed Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry Tachycardia in a 17-year-old congenital heart patient who was not diagnosed after a two-week Holter study. and we have diagnosed silent ischemia. Dr. Eric Topol has diagnosed an acute ST Elevation myocardial infarction on a plane, forcing it to land.

Now you must understand that we have not used our device in more than a couple of hundred people so this diagnostic yield is incredible.

Dr. Albert also sent us the abstract of the study, which we’ve included below:

Poster 1247-575

iPhone Rhythm Strip — the Implications of Wireless and Ubiquitous Heart Rate Monitoring

Leslie A. Saxon, Alexandra Smith, Sona Doshi, Jessica Dinsdale, Dave Albert, University of Southern California, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA

Background: Wireless technologies enable transmission of high quality ECG recordings without the need for leads. A device incorporating electrodes into an Apple iPhone case allows for wireless recording of 30-second rhythm strips (LEAD 1) to the cloud (AliveCor, Okla. City, OK). ECGs can be downloaded for immediate interpretation using any browser.

Methods: iPhone-owning attendees of a Body Computing Conference at USC participated in an eight-week study to determine how they utilize the device.

Results: A total of 54 participants (43+/- 11 yrs, 77 percent male, 15 percent physicians, 61 percent business, 13 percent media/entertainment, 11 percent engineers) transmitted 36+/-53 30-second recordings weekly (range 3-298) for eight weeks. Without training, subjects used the case to record ECG’s on themselves and others (61 percent). Transmission interpretation was normal sinus rhythm (68 percent); sinus brady or tachy (16 percent), extra atrial or ventricular systoles (two percent), QRS delay (one percent); and noise (13 percent). Symptomatic ventricular tachycardia and asymptomatic ST segment depression were detected in two participants, the latter in Mumbai, India.

Conclusion: Anytime ECG monitoring, as an adjunct to a smartphone is intuitive and allows users to learn about and characterize their heart rates and rhythms. It provides global identification of arryhythmias at any time. the implications of this technology for improving public awareness of health metrics and for the early diagnosis of arryhthmias are enormous.

This post also appears on medGadget, an Atlantic partner site.

The Incredible Success of a Heart Monitor Made for the iPhone

Hungry for more rumors on new Windows Phones, Sprint folk? Today’s your lucky day, as SprintFeed has gotten some intel on what the Now Network may have in store involving Microsoft’s mobile OS. The site claims that “sources familiar with Sprint’s LTE game plan” have said that the carrier is planning to begin developing a new LTE-capable Windows Phone. The manufacturer that’ll be responsible for crafting the device isn’t yet known, but the tipsters claim that it’ll be powered by a Qualcomm MSM8960 processor. However, testing for the mystery handset will reportedly push its debut back until sometime this fall.

This latest report jibes with one from last month that claimed that Sprint is interested in releasing a Windows Phone with the MSM8960 chip and has even shared its LTE specifications with the folks at Nokia. As for the possibility of a fall debut for this device, we’ve heard a couple of reports on Sprint’s Windows Phone plans: one from a Sprint exec saying that his carrier may wait until August or September before pushing out a new Windows Phone, and another claim that Sprint could be passing on the platform until the arrival of WP8 Apollo, which is expected later this year. By the sound of things, you Sprint users jonesing for a new Windows Phone may be in for a bit of a wait. If this rumored device becomes reality, though, the wait may just be worth it.

Via SprintFeed

Sprint reportedly planning LTE Windows Phone for release later this year

Fiji's Ministry of Labour is to help Kiribati with its labour reforms. this will be done in six stages between July 2012 and June 2014. Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations Jone Usamate said this will also help Fiji identify any weaknesses in its system. Usamate signed the first memorandum of understanding between Kiribati and Fiji in Suva today with the Kiribati Minister for Labour Boutu Bateriki By Mereani Gonedua

Win a trip to see Lady Gaga Live in Concert in NZ for her Born this Way World Tour. Six return trips to NZ, concert ticket, spending money & one night’s accommodation, $20,000 in airtime, DVDs & CDs to be won. Txt FijiLive to 827 or download any Lady Gaga song or any English song and go into the draw to win. Vodafone/Inkk ciustomers only. Conditions Apply*

Fiji to help Kiribati with labour reforms

AU $580.00 (53 Bids)End Date: Friday Mar-16-2012 13:10:47 EST

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Ever since the NBA enacted a more rigid salary cap, it’s been a bit tricky to concoct trades even when franchises really want to make a deal happen. Need proof?  

Well when was the last time ESPN.com unveiled a trade machine for baseball, designed to help fans calculate and keep track of all the various aspects of the salary cap in an effort to make understanding trades and potential trades a little easier?

Before this season the salary cap was confusing to fans, but it had been in place for over a decade. General managers and decision makers had plenty of time to become familiar with it and all of its exceptions and rules.

Now, the old collective bargaining agreement and the old salary cap are history, replaced by a brand new set of rules and trade exceptions, which were agreed to and enacted just a few weeks before the current season began. 

New can mean better and it can mean worse, but it always takes some time to get used to and that may end up causing a few NBA owners and general managers to get cold feet with regards to wheeling and dealing at the trade deadline this season. 

After all, a new set of rules means a new system of determining an individual player’s value. Fans and media alike at times have a habit of comparing two players and looking at their stats or rings or personalities and then determining who is “better”. 

All of those can be important, but general managers and owners are most interested in “value”. is Rajon Rondo better than Derrick Rose? of course not, even the greenest of Celtics fans would be hesitant to make that type of bold declaration.

Is Rajon Rondo—at about $11 million per year—more valuable than Derrick Rose, who makes $18 million a year? well, that’s a legitimate debate.

The salaries basically state that Rose is 39 percent better than Rondo. That’s debatable as well, but once you add in what type of player a team could acquire with the left-over $7 million from having Rondo in place over Rose, that adds a whole other metric to the debate.

Now that the cap has changed and the luxury tax rules have changed, the methods and importance of determining “value” have changed as well and that can be a daunting prospect for owners. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said of the new rules (via NBA.com):

Mavs owner Mark Cuban has expressed concern with the new CBA rules. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

“Because of the new set of rules, there’s going to be a different market for pricing players. and when there’s a different market for pricing players, you’ve got to introduce a different methodology for building a team. and you can’t just use the same approach that we’ve used in the past.” 

This could mean that owners are playing a game of “chicken”. one owner wants to wait and see how another owner is assigning value to his players. then that owner will check that against the actions of another owner and so forth. all of that adds up to a lot of waiting and seeing.

The new CBA also includes far stiffer penalties for exceeding the salary cap. Those rules don’t make an impact until the 2013-2014 season, but with that in mind, it may make dealing players with long-term contracts even more difficult this season and next as well.

The new CBA also restricts exceptions and sign-and-trade deals as well.

It’s going to take time to see how it impacts the league and the league trading deadline. It’s too soon to declare it “good” or “bad”. it may also be too soon for some gun-shy owners concerned about skyrocketing luxury tax payments or future salary cap problems to pull the trigger on a big trade in the next 24 hours.   

NBA Trade Rumors: Why New CBA Will Prevent Flurry of Trades

Apple is aiming to improve the search and discovery features in its App Store, with the purchase of Australian start-up Chomp a search engine for apps, TechCrunch reported. Chomp develops tools that help users find new and relevant applications on iOS and Android devices.

The deal will help Apple improve its own search systems as its store now boasts over 500,000 apps – further evidence that app store optimization is needed. Chomp chief executive Ben Keighran and chief technology officer Cathy Edwards have already moved to Apple, sourced told 9to5Mac. the site reported that Keighran is working with the iTunes marketing team and Edwards is a senior iTunes engineer.

Bloomberg later reported the deal was worth $50 million, although this is unconfirmed. 

Apple didn’t confirm the deal outright, but in a statement acknowledged it does make acquisitions from time to time: ”We buy smaller technology companies from time to time and generally don’t comment on our purposes or plans.” 

The deal comes at the same time that Apple held its annual shareholder meeting in California, during which chief executive Tim Cook spoke on a number of issues around the company’s future, including what the company may do with its huge cash reserves of $100 billion.

“On cash, we’ve been thinking about cash very deeply, the board has been looking into what is in shareholders’ best interest,” he said, according to a cbnc.com live blog of the event. ”We will do what we think is in the best interest of shareholders.”

Save up to $400! Register now for SES new York 2012, the leading search & social marketing event, taking place March 19-23. Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist Avinash Kaushik will keynote. Early bird rate expires March 2.

Apple Buys Chomp to Improve App Search