The Skeptical Cardiologist has been a huge advocate of personal mobile ECG monitoring to empower patients in monitoring and understanding their heart rhythm.
The deserved leaders in this field are the (version 4 and later) and , which comes in single-lead and .
Both Apple and AliveCor have gotten FDA approval for their mobile ECG device and have a body of published studies supporting their accuracy.
In contrast, there are a number of "copycat" mobile ECG devices that have been feeding on the success of Apple Watch and Kardia but do not have the bona fides the two leaders have.
I and found it sorely lacking in comparison to Kardia in terms of accuracy of diagnosis and quality of recordings, the two most important aspects of a personal ECG monitor.
Dan Field, a physician and reader of my blog, has been evaluating a device similar to the SonoHealth ECG made by Emay.
He provided a point-by-point comparison of the two devices in the chart below:
His summary:
"The Kardia 6L was clearly superior in almost every way except for price, and even that was within the margin of error."
It should be noted that the single-lead Kardia mobile ECG is actually cheaper than the Emay and retails for $99.
I ended my prior post reviewing SonoHealth's ECG with a warning that applies equally to the Emay device:
The SonoHealth EKGraph is capable of making a reasonable quality single-lead ECG. Presumably, all the other devices utilizing the same hardware will work as well.
However, the utility of these devices for consumers and patients lies in the ability of the software algorithms to provide accurate diagnoses of the cardiac rhythm.
Apple Watch 4 and do a very good job of sorting out atrial fibrillation from normal rhythm, but the SonoHealth EKGraph does a horrible job and should not be relied on for this purpose.
The companies making and selling the EKGraph and similar devices have not done the due diligence Apple and AliveCor have done in making sure their mobile ECG devices are accurate. As far as I can tell, this is just an attempt to fool naïve patients and consumers by a combination of marketing misinformation and manipulation.
I cannot recommend SonoHealth's EKGraph or any of the other copycat mobile ECG devices. For a few dollars more, consumers can have a proven, reliable mobile ECG device with a solid algorithm for rhythm diagnosis. The monthly subscription fee that AliveCor offers as an option allows permanent storage in the cloud along with the capability to connect via with a physician and is well worth the dollars spent.
Please note that I have no financial or consulting ties to AliveCor. I'm just a big fan of their products.
is a private practice noninvasive cardiologist and medical director of echocardiography at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis. He blogs on nutrition, cardiac testing, quackery, and other things worthy of skepticism at , where a version of this post first appeared.