6-Lead Personal EKG (ECG) AliveCor KardiaMobile $129 at Amazon

Unless you're someone trained in such telemetry, I don't see this deal having any appeal for anyone. This isn't like a pulse ox or blood pressure monitor where you can get a general idea with an ubga bunga number chart. If you actually need an EKG, you would already have one and a person on-call to interpret it.

Quote from SeikenDensetsu : Unless you're someone trained in such telemetry, I don't see this deal having any appeal for anyone. This isn't like a pulse ox or blood pressure monitor where you can get a general idea with an ubga bunga number chart. If you actually need an EKG, you would already have one and a person on-call to interpret it.

Well, it gives you a warning of the effect of being pre-tachycardia or tachycardic, and then you can send the 'strip' to your doctor or to one of their 'doctors' or clinicians... Not bad to have around.

Tbh, I could forgive it if it provided cool tutorials or manual on how to interpret the readings, but it really only provides the reading and that's it. Hypochondriacs, munchausen, and the uninformed eat your hearts out.

Pricematch the BB unit and get it sooner for some people with a longer extended holidays return. I just shipped one a couple days back.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/aliv...Id=6354088

I'm using it because EKGs have never found an issue with me; but I haven't had chest pains by the time I made it in.

Quote from phirephoto : Well, it gives you a warning of the effect of being pre-tachycardia or tachycardic, and then you can send the 'strip' to your doctor or to one of their 'doctors' or clinicians... Not bad to have around.

Tachycardia=elevated HR. You don't need an EKG to tell you your HR.

Quote from tigrad : Pricematch the BB unit and get it sooner for some people with a longer extended holidays return. I just shipped one a couple days back. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/aliv...Id=6354088 I'm using it because EKGs have never found an issue with me; but I haven't had chest pains by the time I made it in.

Not sold by Amazon. They probably won't pm.

Might be useful for afib folks?

I own one and it's quite useful if you have AFib or are concerned about other heart conditions that you know you have. If you are not seeing a cardiologist, I don't think you need these.

They are most useful for two things, to monitor your heath trends to review with your doctor, and to send people rushing to the ER when they should instead be monitoring their health trends and reviewing them with their doctor.

Isn't it just another cool fun tech that's been made more available for personal use? Sure it might be useful to some but the main thing is that anyone can afford one now. Similar to personal cell phones, computers and cars?

How many of those $5-$50 drones does everyone have? True you might not be able to interpret it but it encourages more people to learn.

Quote from DelightfulMint1373 : Tachycardia=elevated HR. You don't need an EKG to tell you your HR.

You don't need an EKG to tell if you're tachycardic but the ekg readings could show signs of other issues. It could be acute due to something worse or it could be transient and due to something that won't occur again. TBH you're right, even if you bring a personal EKG in the doctors will sideline your personal readings and do their own. But in the 1 in a million case it might present an alternative diagnosis for early detection. One in a million and only if that person happened to have this and go to the doctor afterwards and the doctor listened. Nifty toy though.

Quote from phirephoto : Well, it gives you a warning of the effect of being pre-tachycardia or tachycardic

Well yeah, but to be fair, so does a finger and every clock on the planet.

Quote from phirephoto : then you can send the 'strip' to your doctor or to one of their 'doctors' or clinicians... Not bad to have around.

Well two problems with that.

#1 it's basically impossible for you to collect meaningful EKG data with this configuration (esp. since even the stupid marketing photos show the fingers touching the knee), and even if it were, it would require individual practice against an actual clinical interpretation AND periodic recalibration (i.e. I know patient X can get meaningful results because we checked it out and they are able to collect data which matches what the calibrated instrument under proper protocol got).

#2 If you "send the strip to your doctor" you know what they are going to do? They are going to throw it out and tell you to come in for a real EKG. i.e. the EXACT SAME thing they would do if you sent them a picture your kid drew or a jpg of Scarlett Johansson instead. There is not a single doctor on this planet who is going to hear "I think I have a heart problem, here is an EKG i took myself using a $100 device off amazon", that will say anything other than "if you think you are having a medical emergency go to the ER, otherwise make an appointment as soon as possible" Not a single word more or less. The liability is FAR too great in trying to interpret tea leaves you collected yourself. Come in to get a real EKG/holter is going to be what you have to do REGARDLESS of what this prints out.

TL;DR this is basically worthless unless you can interpret the EKG yourself... and if you CAN read an EKG you know better than to trust this measurement.

I was born with a cardiac condition, I've had 3 open heart surgeries, have an artificial value and a pacemaker. I can tell you, this will do nothing for you. If you think you may have a cardiac issue, go see a professional, DO NOT use some random price reduced product on some deal website.

Actually, forget what I said, buy this and thin the herd!

Cheers,

Some of the comments in this thread are just plain weird.

Kardia is not some random Chinese company, it's American and used by doctors and teamed with Omron so it's backed by big names.

I have this unit and can send the PDFs to my own doctor who reviews them

The output is good enough to spot things like electrolyte imbalances and other issues that trigger heart problems.

If you have insurance and can just go to the doctor every time you want an EKG go for it, this is far more handy for people without those luxuries.

AliveCor makes great stuff. This isn't for you to self-diagnose. This is useful if you have cardiac issues to be able to take an EKG at various times through the day or when you don't feel right and submit it to your cardiologist for review. It's incredibly useful for that use case.
As to if a 6-lead is better than a single lead, that depends on what kind of underlying issue is being checked against.

I have this and we have a family history of cardiac issues. It's been helpful to take an EKG when one of us isn't feeling well and our heart feels off (for some kinds of issues, you can feel it). We can then take an EKG when the symptoms are present and email the EKG to our cardiologist for review.

Quote from SeikenDensetsu : Unless you're someone trained in such telemetry, I don't see this deal having any appeal for anyone. This isn't like a pulse ox or blood pressure monitor where you can get a general idea with an ubga bunga number chart. If you actually need an EKG, you would already have one and a person on-call to interpret it.

I second it. IMHO, it is a really bad idea to to sell such thing to a general public.
You have to know how interpret it and vast majority of people won't bother to really learn it in depth.
Which will lead to two possible outcomes:
1) ERs will be flooded with hypochondriacs who see strange peak and think they're having heart attack or other life-threatening condition
2) People with persistent chest or shoulder pain will check it, see it as more or less normal, won't go to a doctor and miss serious heart issue.