Typically, a patient being monitored by an ECG setup requires ten different electrodes to be attached to predefined anatomical locations on their body. Knowing where to properly place the electrodes requires a lot of training, and the ten different wires coming from each lead can become tangled, or just get in the way.

So, an Evanston, Illinois-based company called Commwell has developed a special glove that the patient wears on their left hand and simply lays across their chest. Getting it positioned correctly apparently only takes minimal coaching by the medical staff, and the glove incorporates all the required electrodes with just a single cable for connecting to a monitoring device.

 

Now, this is probably not designed to serve as a long-term solution for ECGs, since a patient could accidentally move their arm whenever they fall asleep, but when setting up an ECG is a time-critical matter, thus everybody can see why the PhysioGlove might be advantageous.

 

This new invention, which resembles an oven glove, is put on the patient's left hand for them to hold against their chest. Tiny sensors in the material pick up electrical activity in the heart and feed the results back to a portable monitor. This allows paramedics called out to someone who has collapsed with chest pain to immediately see if they have suffered a heart attack and need to be taken to hospital.

 

The manufacturer claims it can perform a full ECG in less than a minute, roughly a tenth of the time it can take for a conventional test. Already approved for use in the UK and Europe, the glove looks like a standard oven glove, but it has electrodes fixed into the material in such a way that when the hand is placed over the chest, it picks up electrical activity in the right area.

 

The patient first lies flat, then places their left hand and arm across their chest, keeping the elbow tucked into their body in what Commwell Inc. describes as a 'pledge of allegiance' style. By pressing down on the skin, the patient ensures there is good contact with the electrodes. The signals are then fed to a monitor connected to the glove, which gives an instant reading on the heart's electrical activity.

 

A spokesman for Commwell Inc. said, “The glove is in alignment with the correct anatomical positions needed to measure electrical activity. It can be performed by almost anybody. There is no need for special training.”

 

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