Physiological Waveform Extractor-Generator

Abstract

Biomedical engineering staff at hospitals regularly troubleshoot cardiac monitors and defibrillators. Some of the reported problems involve incorrect device interpretation of the ECG waveforms. Occasionally, some of these cases are difficult to investigate especially if the event does not occur regularly. Recently, we encountered two cases in our department which fall under the above criteria. In each case, a defibrillator issued a false negative shock advisory.Considering the above, we developed a simple practical method to evaluate such a device. In this method, the patient’s waveform is extracted from the paper record, re- generated, and applied to the device in-question. This procedure will allow the staff to test the device quickly and confirm or dismiss the reported error.