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Build Your Own ECG
Jason writes "I finally finished documenting my $4 home made electrocardiograph (heart monitor). If anyone is interested or wants to build one for themselves, please come by and take a look. Makes me wonder why medical care costs so much. :)"
Oh don't get me started on medical equipment, [read: I'm going to get started on medical equipment]
Being disabled (SMA type 2, A type of MD, Donate to MDA!) I deal with medical equipment a lot, less then some in more critical situations, but more then your average user.
It's outrageous the markup medical tag gives to an item, one of the most outlandish of them that I saw was a flag, a metal mounting bracket, fyberglass rod, and cheap neon flag. You know the kind, sold in the walmart bike department for a measly 3$
Do you know how much they wanted at a medical store? No you dont.... 18$
So the price of "medical" is 15$ on top of 3$ It's insane.
You can buy an Ok car for the price of an electric wheelchair. And that's just for what's on the low end.
How exactly are people who can't walk suppossed to affoard this shit? Sure it's possible, and often times picked up by the government (thank god)
And if you're not covered, forget footing this bill your self, unless you've got cash to burn. And it's not like the freedom of mobility is important or any thing. Just one of life's liberties some people take for granted.
"I wish I could sit all day"
Fuck you buddy
Grrr, can you tell I'm bitter?
And then theres red tape. I've been using this same wheelchair for several years now, it needs replaced. But fighting for them is a nightmare. So much paper work.
Computational Madness in a round package.
It's not impossible to kill yourself with a badly-designed ECG device.
Places like UL/CSA say that voltages under 40V or so are safe. But if you apply it to electrodes pasted to your chest, the unsafe voltage is WAY lower than 40V.
If you build a simple ECG and connect it to a computer, that computer had better be battery-powered. If not, then you might get a nasty surprise (waking up in the afterlife of your choice.)
((((((((((((( ( ( ( (o) ) ) ) )))))))))))))
SCIENCE HOBBYIST amasci.com
A disgustingly large amount of our medical expenses goes to malpractice insurance, and mostly to protect from one of the millions of malpractice cases that never should have been that occur each year. Granted, the ability to sue for malpratice *is* a good thing. However, it is grossly misused, and results in higher medical bills for all.
Not to say that's the only factor... but that's one of them.
I can tell you that many of us clinicians laugh out loud at some of the machine "interpretations" that ECG machines generate.
NEVER trust a physician who allows his ECG machine to interpret your tracing... run for the door... I'm quite serious about that. If the guy doesn't have the expertise to read your tracing himself, don't trust your cardiovascular health to him.
I've sent people home with ECGs that read ****ACUTE MI***** in large, upper-case font on the top, because the machine was totally, completely wrong. The only thing it's sometimes useful for is in reading QT intervals, and occasionally rate (though the machine can be easily fooled on this one as well).
Have a doc read it, preferably a cardiologist. Of course, if you don't want to pay a guy like that for his expertise you don't have to... but you get what you pay for.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.