Remote Analysis and Transmission System of Electrocardiogram in Prehospital Setting; a Diagnostic Accuracy Study

INTRODUCTION: One of the trends in the development of medical technologies is considered to be telemedicine. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of a remote electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis and transmission system in prehospital setting. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the data of 19,265 ECGs was gathered from emergency medical service (EMS) database of Almaty city, Kazakhstan, from 2015 to 2019. All ECGs were recorded in the prehospital setting by a paramedic, using "Poly-Spectrum" ECG recording device. Subsequently, all ECGs were sent to the cardiologist for interpretation and the findings were compared between software and cardiologist. RESULTS: 19,265 ECGs were registered. The average time from taking ECGs to receiving an expert’s conclusion was 9.2 ± 2.5 minutes. The medical teams were called in 17.9% of cases after paramedic ECG recording; however, in the rest of the cases there was no need to call those teams. Using the device reduced the number of visits of specialist teams. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ECG analysis device in diagnosis of ECG abnormalities were 83.8% (95%CI: 82.6 – 84.9), 95.5% (95%CI: 95.1 – 95.8), and 93.3% (95%CI: 92.9 – 93.7), respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study showed the 93.3% accuracy of automatic ECG analysis device in interpretation of ECG abnormalities in prehospital setting compared with the cardiologist interpretations. Using the device causes a decrease in the number of cardiologist visits needed as well as reduction in cost and elapsed time.