Acquisition and analysis of cardiovascular signals on smartphones: potential, pitfalls and perspectives: By the Task Force of the e-Cardiology Working Group of European Society of Cardiology
Open accessAbstract
Smartphones, mobile applications ('apps'), social media, analytics, and the cloud are profoundly changing the practice of medicine and the way health decisions are made. With the constant progress of technology, the measurement of vital signals becomes easier, cheaper, and practically a standard approach in clinical practice. The interest in measuring vital signals goes beyond medical professionals to the general public, patients, informal caregivers, and healthy individuals, who frequently lack any formal medical training. On smartphone platforms such as iOS and Android, a proliferation of health or medical 'apps' acquire and analyse a variety of vital signs through embedded sensors, interconnected devices or peripherals utilising on occasion analytics and social media. Smartphone vendors compete with traditional medical device manufacturers in the grey area between health care, wellness, and fitness, as US and EU regulatory bodies are setting and revising rules for these new technologies. On the other hand, in the absence of robust validation results, clinicians are hesitant to trust measurements by apps or recommend specific apps to their patients, partly also due to lack of a cost reimbursement policy. This review focuses on the acquisition and analysis on smartphones of three important vital signs in the cardiovascular and respiratory field as well as in rehabilitation i.e. heart or pulse rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation. The potential, pitfalls, and perspectives on mobile devices and smartphone apps for health management by patients and healthy individuals are discussed.
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Because up to now smartphone applications have recorded real-time ECG, their current role in syncope is limited for the same reason as for prospective event recorders.
“Because up to now smartphone applications have recorded real-time ECG, their current role in syncope is limited for the same reason as for prospective event recorders. 164,165”
From 2018 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of syncope (2018) · cites this paper as [164]
The ECG monitoring section says smartphone ECG technology can be used for diagnostic or monitoring purposes in patients with recurrent syncope. It also describes eMotion continuously transmitting ECG to a smartphone, with recordings uploaded in real time for up to five days. That contradicts the claim's premise that smartphone ECG recording is limited in the same way as a prospective event recorder; the paper does not make that comparison. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMobile device companies are clearly interested in reimbursement issues, evidenced by contact between Apple health executives and insurance companies.
“Mobile device companies are clearly interested in reimbursement issues, evidenced by contact between Apple health executives and insurance companies (Bruining 2014).”
From 2021 ISHNE/HRS/EHRA/APHRS Expert Collaborative Statement on mHealth in Arrhythmia Management: Digital Medical Tools for Heart Rhythm Professionals: From the International Society for Holter and Noninvasive Electrocardiology/Heart Rhythm Society/European Heart Rhythm Association/Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society (2021) · cites this paper as Bruining 2014
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- Authors
- Bruining, N., Caiani, E., Chronaki, C., Guzik, P., & van der Velde, E.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus MC (NL)
- Politecnico di Milano (IT)
- Health Level Seven International (BE)
- Department of Cardiology-Intensive Therapy, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland
- Department of Cardiology, Leiden Medical Center, the Netherlands
- Corresponding author
- Chronaki, Catherine
- Venue
- European Journal of Preventive Cardiology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2014-10-29
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 2_suppl
- Pages
- 4-13
- ISSN
- 2047-4873 (ISSN-L)
- 2047-4881
- OpenAlex
- W2324140945
- Cited by
- 81
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 4.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Virtual Community of Pathological Anatomy (University of Castilla La Mancha) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (610756)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › ECG Monitoring and Analysis
- Keywords
- mobile health apps, vital signs measurement, cardiovascular signals, heart rate, pulse rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation, wearable sensors, mobile health, self-monitoring, rehabilitation
- MeSH terms
- Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Determination, Cardiovascular Diseases, Electrocardiography, Heart Rate, Humans, Oximetry, Oxygen, Predictive Value of Tests, Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted, Telemetry, Reproducibility of Results, Biomarkers, Telemedicine, Cell Phone, Mobile Applications
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