Mobile device assisted remote heart monitoring and tachycardia prediction

Cardiovascular diseases not only kill hundreds of thousands of people each year around the globe but also cost billions of dollars. It is economically and socially advantageous to reduce the burden of disease treatment by enhancing prevention and early detection. Existing mobile care systems [6], [8], [7], [4] constantly monitor sick and elderly patients and send alerts to healthcare providers when they detect abnormalities in heart rates. These systems are reactive as they take action only when abnormal heart condition, such as Tachycardia, has been detected. However, abnormal heart condition may develop into Tachycardia over some time and there might be an increasing trend in heart rates observed before it is diagnosed as full blown Tachycardia. In fact, it has been found that increase in heart rate Precedes episodes of Ventricular Tachycardia and Ventricular Fibrillation in some patients [9]. In this paper, we propose to use an advanced prediction model to estimate the heart rates of selected patients in a mobile care system that would send alerts to a designated medical centre for appropriate action to be taken when estimated rates exceed a predefined threshold. Our proposed system is preventive as it is capable of predicting heart rate abnormality, and possibly Tachycardia, well in advance.