Medical Data Storage , Visualization and Interpretation : A Case Study Using a Proprietary ECG XML Format

Since the implementation of the emergency coronary care units in the 1960s, ECG monitoring devices were used to diagnose and monitor major life-threatening arrhythmias in patients with cardiac disease. Currently, ECG monitoring plays a major role in other hospital departments as intensive therapy units, operating rooms and emergency rooms. ECG monitoring use has expanded from simple cardiac rhythm detection to complex heart analysis like the detection of complex arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation T wave abnormalities, ST-segment elevation in cardiac ischemia and its role is still expanding. We consider there is a critical medical requirement for continuous development of modern medical devices like ECG that allows doctors not only access to better medical systems, but also to customize access and usage of the medical data. In this article we explain the implementation of an open-source ECG system to visualize XML files obtained from GE MAC5500 ECG machines, without using their specific platform, and a way to automatically detected heart abnormalities based on ECG. It deals with reading, displaying and processing data from a medical electrocardiograph.