A Wearable ECG System with Printed Electrodes for Heart Health Monitoring and Diagnosis

The increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases worldwide has triggered the need for developing wearable Electrocardiogram (ECG) systems for routine use in daily life. Here, we report the development of a miniaturized wireless ECG monitoring system that is easy to use and low cost. Our innovative wearable ECG system comprises screen-printed ECG electrodes connected using snap connectors to an ECG readout. The screen-printed ECG electrodes comprises of silver nanowires as conductive layer, ECG electrode gel and a silicone adhesive printed on a flexible plastic substrate. The effect of the distance between the two printed electrodes in the form of an ECG strip (5 cm and 8 cm centre-to-centre) is tested by collecting ECG data from volunteers using our custom wearable ECG readout, operated through a generic app. The printed ECG electrodes demonstrated performance similar to commercial ECG electrodes, as confirmed by a cardiologist during a blinded review of the ECG data. Future developments involve testing the system in large populations (adults, kids, infants, and neonates) and validation with gold-standard ECG systems and electrodes.