Lecturer from AHS, Thammasat won the gold medal from the IWIS invention and innovation contest 2022.

Tuesday 22 November 2022

     “The Wireless and Cloud Electrocardiography (W & C EKG)” by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ketsara Rakpongsiri, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences ,Thammasat University received the gold medal from the invention and innovation contest at The XVI International Warsaw Invention Show 2022” (IWIS 2022) Online in Warsaw, Republic of Poland.

     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ketsara Rakpongsiri mentioned about the concept of producing the W & C EKG that nowadays, the internet is easily accessible whether it is a personal computer (or a portable device such as a mobile phone and tablet computers, internet is used widely on sending voice messages, images and many more. In which these devices have a way to communicate with a variety of peripherals which is divided into two main types: Wired connections such as USB or Universal Serial Bus, Serial port RS 232, HDMI, VGA, etc. Another type is a wireless connection such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IR, RF, etc. Communication devices including computers all have the ability to connect via the internet. This will allow access to information regardless of place, as long as there is a cell phone signal.

     As a result, the design and development of an EKG device that save data in the cloud storage and display EKG reports of different people being measured. Currently, most of the EKG equipment are large. It uses 12-electrode recording and is not designed to be electrically isolated from the computer system. The measuring line from the instrument has direct contact with the user. This may cause harm to the user in case of any electrical leakage. It is also difficult to examine and analyze the data. Therefore, there is an idea to design a 2-electrode EKG device in 2 locations for convenience and ease of use and not cuasing difficulty for inexperienced users and saving analysis results on cloud storage.

     Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ketsara added that the W & C EKG is a small battery-powered EKG device. It is safe from the risk of electrical leakage that may occur from general measuring instruments. It works by connecting to the coaxial cable which bring the signal of the electric potential difference of the body in each part being measured to the electrical signal amplification. The signal extension consists of amplifier with high input impedance and low noise. Subsequently, it will be forwarded to the signal filter as the human body has the ability to receive signals radiated by the air and can cause noise while measuring. After amplifying and filtering the signal, it is transmitted through the signal, converted to digital signal and encoded as a wireless communication. Then forwarded to the computer via Bluetooth and using a computer programming to change the measured signal from the instrument. The result is displayed on the computer screen as an EKG graph and can be analyzed to save on cloud storage that can be accessed via online computer networks around the world.

     And the test results of measuring the signal from the W & C EKG Measurement in 6 healthy volunteers showed that the EKG waveform was close to the standard signal and the components and important parameters analysis of the EKG signal such as P-R interval, QRS interval, Q-T interval, R-R interval, S-T segment correctly and close to the existing EKG standard signal values and commonly used in medicine.