MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Real-time heart monitoring for the first time showed a massive increase in cardiac events during the February 2010 earthquake in Chile.
Similar research has shown an relationship between reported patient heart problems and tragic events, such as in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in New York, but the reports came from the days and weeks after the attack. Using ECG telemonitors, researchers were able to gather data in real-time from patients reporting to hospitals during the tragic earthquake in Chile last year.
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The national telemedicine clinic in Santiago monitors ECG reports and other wireless device monitors 24 hours a day, researcher Dr. Edgardo Escobar told Heartwire, who warned that the startling figures gathered are probably a vast underestimate since much of the data transmission was cut off near the epicenter of the earthquake.
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