Mednet and AT&T to offer wireless heart monitoring

Mar 29 2009

Lifesaving diagnoses and actions, prompted by the anywhere, anytime availability of vital cardiac information, is now more accessible thanks to a wireless heart monitoring solution from Mednet Healthcare Technologies that is powered by AT&T's wireless technologies.

Mednet, a leading provider of cardiac monitoring products and surveillance services, is helping doctors and patients remotely monitor heart arrhythmia through personal mobile devices. Under a new contract with AT&T, Mednet's HEARTRAK External Cardiac Ambulatory Telemetry (ECAT) solution will facilitate wireless monitoring of patient devices via Bluetooth-enabled cell phones across AT&T's expansive 3G and EDGE wireless data footprint, which covers more than 13,000 cities and towns and 40,000 miles of highway across the country.

Until now, patients using Mednet heart monitors utilized a toll-free number and had to place their monitoring device near a landline phone receiver to send a signal to a central monitoring center. With the new ECAT solution, patient data will be automatically transmitted via Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices, which synchronize with the heart monitor to streamline data transfer and enhance ease of use. Using AT&T's wireless network, the ECAT solution will allow the monitoring device to automatically record and send real-time patient data to a central monitoring center, where physicians can access and review the data. In addition to wireless monitoring, Mednet will also use AT&T voice services so cardiac technicians and physicians can quickly reach out to patients if needed.

"Using AT&T's wireless network, physicians will now be able to instantly monitor a patient's heart from virtually any location, making this one of the latest steps in advancing patient care," said Frank Movizzo, CEO of Mednet. "We look forward to expanding heart monitoring capabilities with AT&T."