Comparison of Mobile Application-Based ECG Consultation by Collective Intelligence and ECG Interpretation by Conventional System in a Tertiary-Level Hospital

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A mobile application (app)-based electrocardiogram (ECG) consultation system (InterMD Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea) using the collective intelligence (CI) and the availability of large-scale digitized ECG data would extend the utility of ECGs beyond their current limitations, while at the same time preserving interpretability that remains critical to medical decision-making. METHODS: We developed a new mobile app-based ECG consultation system by CI for general practitioners. We compared the responses of ECG reading between the mobile app-based CI system and the conventional system in a tertiary referring hospital. RESULTS: We analyzed 376 consecutive ECGs between December 2017 and May 2019. Of these, 159 ECGs (42.3%) were interpreted by CI through the mobile app-based ECG consultation system and 217 ECGs (57.7%) were analyzed by cardiologists in the conventional systems based on electronic medical record data in a tertiary hospital. All ECG readings were confirmed by an electrophysiologist (EP). The time to an initial response by the CI system was faster than that of the conventional system (6.6 hours vs. 35.8 hours, p<0.0001). The number of responses of each ECG in CI system outnumbered those of the conventional system in the tertiary hospital (3.1 vs. 1.2, p<0.0001). The consensus of the ECG readings with EP was similar in both systems (98.6% vs. 100%, p=0.158). CONCLUSIONS: The mobile app-based ECG consultation system by CI is as reliable method as the conventional referral system. It would expand the app of the 12-lead ECG with the collaboration of physicians in clinics and hospitals without time and space constraints.