Microcomputers: Microprocessors and the M.D.: A new breed of smart medical equipment can diagnose, monitor, analyze, and rehabilitate

Microprocessor-based electrocardiography instruments are helping combat the No. 1 killer of people in the United States: heart disease. The new ECG instruments not only capture and display real-time and recorded measurements of heart rates, waveforms, and rhythms, but they also process and transfer the data to a remote site for analysis by a cardiologist or a computer. Analysis can point to problems in the electrical conduction networks, heart muscles, valves or blood flow. The latest ECG equipment uses the microprocessor's software-derived intelligence to diagnose some heart defects or to record and warn of abnormal heart rhythms. (See box, p. 49)