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New Cardiac Monitors Installed
Picture-In-Picture, scrolling stock ticker claimed
to improve care
OMAHA, NE--On Tuesday, Synesis, the nation's largest
manufacturer of medical monitoring devices, announced plans to release
a new cardiac monitor, tentatively dubbed the "iCU-Box," for
use in critical care and telemetry settings.
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Brief History of EKG's and Telemetry
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| 1856 Rudolph von Koelliker and Heinrich
Muller record the first action potential. |
| 1893 Willem Einthoven introduces the
term 'electrokardiogram' at a meeting of the Dutch Medical Association
but later claims that Augustus Waller was first to use the term. In
the same year, Abner Einthoven invents baseball in Cooperstown, NY.
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1905 Einthoven transmits electrocardiograms from his hospital
to his laboratory 1.5 km away via Palm Pilot. On March 22 the first
'telekardiogram' is captured; on March 23, an overly neurotic attending
physician reminds medical students that the proper American term
for EKG is "ECG"
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| 1918 Boston Red Sox win their last World
Series. In the years to follow, demoralized Boston fans divert their
hopes and aspirations towards becoming groundbreaking cardiology researchers
instead. |
| 1924 Dr. Paul Dudley White of Massachusetts
General Hospital established the American Heart Association and served
as Executive Director of the National Advisory Heart Council, overseeing
the creation of the National Institutes of Health. Few care. |
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1924 Willem Einthoven wins Nobel prize for inventing the
electrocardiograph. Coincidentally, Ted Williams is born in Raleigh,
NC.
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| 1932 TV broadcasting begins in Canada
on July 20, 1931. EKGs play little or no direct role in TV's development
or production. |
| 1989 CNBC begins broadcasts on April
17, 1989. Once again, EKGs play little or no role. |
| 1998 Barney the Purple Dinosaur's "Great
Adventure" Movie Released. EKG shows incomplete right bundle
branch block. |
A prototype iCU-Box, unveiled at the annual Omaha
Consumer Electronic Show, featured a a 25" flat screen monitor with
Digital Dolby Surround Sound, Picture-in-Picture, and a built-in scrolling
ticker with live streaming quotes from the Dow and NASDAQ, as well as
from the late Sir William Osler.
"Previously," said Synesis R&D coordinator
Ervin Möeller, "cardiac monitors had only the dull monophonic
droning of each heart beat, along with those predictable 3-color tracings
for the EKG, pulmonary wedge pressure and pulse ox."
"Now, the electronic beeping of the cardiac
rhythm can be heard the same way as in movie theaters: coming from eight
speakers encircling the patient and physician, for a true 360-degree octaphonic
experience."
Company spokespeople state that Picture-in-Picture
(PIP) will allow physicians and patients to watch a smaller version of
the information already on the cardiac monitor, and to swap back and forth
between the two screens at will.
In addition, the live stock ticker is expected to
more than double the amount of time physicians at patient bedsides, which
some industry analysts feel will translate into better patient care, though
the transmission of resistant bacteria to the patients is also expected
to increase.
Synesis plans to add closed-captioning in Spanish
and French by Fall 2001.
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