The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7069 p699
October 30, 1999 News

Lloyds's mobile heart monitoring service

The John Bell & Croyden pharmacy in central London is to sell a mobile heart monitoring service to people worried about heart attacks. For £469, plus a £49 monthly charge, people concerned about heart disease will be able to buy small personal electrocardiograph monitors along with a subscription to a monitoring service that will advise whether an abnormal rhythm is occurring. People who join the scheme, provided by a company called Healthwatchdirect, first use the monitor to record a normal rhythm and transmit it by telephone to the monitoring centre. Subsequently, when what are suspected to be cardiac symptoms, or chest discomfort or an irregular heart-beat is experienced, another recording can be made and transmitted to the centre for comparison with the original rhythm.

Mobile phones can be used to transmit cardiac recordings

Lloyds Pharmacy, which owns John Bell & Croyden, says that when the call is received, a doctor at the monitoring centre will compare the two and advise the worried caller whether an ambulance should be called. The ECG recording will also be faxed to the destination hospital.
Lloyds's director of pharmacy (Mr Andrew Murdoch) told The Journal on October 22: "The symptoms of a cardiac event are very difficult for patients to recognise. As a result, the average time between the onset of symptoms and a decision to seek medical treatment is estimated to be over three hours.
Lloyds believes that the service will reduce demand for NHS services by screening out non-serious cardiac symptoms and result in faster diagnosis where there is genuine cause for concern.
"The idea of being able to obtain peace of mind over chest pains within a few minutes represents a vital step forward for both patients and their families," commented a spokeswoman for the British Cardiac Patients' Association.