Debatable: Is the Public Being Misled by Single-Channel ECG Recording devices? You Make the Call.

Saving the best for last at the recent an International Society for Computerized Electrocardiology (ISCE) meetings in St. Simon Island, Georgia — ISCE members scheduled a series of interesting debates for the last session of the meetings. Topics were as follows:

1. Is automated ECG interpretation of any value since over-reading is commonplace in major hospitals?
2. Is 24/7 monitoring out of a hospital a viable concept when nursing staff members switch off alarms in hospitals?
3. ECG imaging is a superb technique, but is it clinically cost-effective?
4. Is the public being misled by single-channel ECG recording devices?

At the end of each debate, the moderator took a poll of the attendees to see which side won. As you can see, the topics were all well-chosen — but the one that got our attention was the last of the evening: Is the public being misled by single-channel ECG recording devices?

On the “No, the public is not being misled” side of the debate was Dr. David Albert, AliveCor CMO from Mountain View, California — hardly one with no skin in the game! On the “Yes, the public is being misled” side was Dr. Morrison Hodges of the Minneapolis Heart Institute in Plymouth, Minnesota. At the end of a lively and passionate debate, the consensus was …

Now it’s your turn to weigh in on this topic. What do you think? I can assure you there were no abstentions from the vote on debate topic!

In the next issue of critical events, we’ll give you the unofficial tally from the ISCE meeting and include some of the pithier comments we receive in response to this query.