A telemedicine application utilizing DataSocket(R) to remotely track the heart rate variability of patients in a clinical research environment

We present the remote monitoring and control features of a computer program for the data acquisition, analysis and demographic database of patient data for clinical research. The heart rate variability (HRV) of patients needed to be determined from patient electrocardiograms and shared with other researchers online. The key requirements of the remote features were identified as being: speed of implementation, and cost and ease of use while preserving the functionality of the program. The system needed to integrate seamlessly into the clinical environment with minimal, if any, disruption of the standard operating procedures related to patient care. This novel method uses the DataSocket application programming interface (API) to simplify and economically develop the remote communication features of our heart rate variability acquisition and analysis program. We successfully met our goal of remotely collecting the patient data and sharing it with colleagues in the hospital in real time.