MobilECG

MobilECG is an USB-based open source 12-lead clinical electrocardiograph.
It is designed to meet all the relevant medical standards (ISO 60601-1, etc.).
Smaller than most ECGs on the market, and also has superior signal quality.
Works with PCs, notebooks, and Android tablets. Records all leads simultaneously.
Manufacturing cost @ 1000 pieces: ~$110 (based on real quotes).

Watch a short video about mobilECG or read more on the failed crowdfunding page.

Contact me at peter dоt isza аt gmail dоt com.

Open Source

You can download the hardware design, firmware, and software source code for free:

The software is licensed under WTFPL, the hardware under CERN OHL 1.2. There is no warranty, and I have no liability for anything related to mobilECG. Only put the electrodes on people if you are 100% confident in what you are doing.

Note: the design is functional (see the gallery below) but unfinished, it needs additional work before it can be certified. There are also some known bugs in it. Most of the software is unimplemented. If you have questions, contact me at peter dоt isza аt gmail dоt com.

Donations: $4688.5. List of donations

Updates

Feb 23, 2014 - Four months have passed

Me and my friends started to work on another project (which by the way doesn't require investment).

Jan 20, 2014 - Three months have passed

I am setting a deadline for the first milestone: Feb 18, 2014 (4 months). If the milestone isn't reached until then, I will stop accepting donations. I should have set this in the beginning, so if you have donated but you are not okay with the deadline, please contact me.

One of my friends is building an instance of mobilECG, and he sent me an image. He had some trouble compiling the firmware, so I wrote a guide about it.

Nov 19, 2013 - PayPal restriction removed

The PayPal account has been restored.

I have received many emails about the project. I am glad that there are now people who are willing to work on it.

Nov 18, 2013 - $2500 of donations, PayPal account restricted

The project has received more than $2500 of donations in less than three days!

It turns out there was a $2500 limit on my PayPal account, so it has been restricted, and it will take some time to remove the restriction. I have opened a Bitcoin wallet and will look for other opportunities soon.

I am going to talk to my accountant this afternoon to set up an official non-profit organization.

I got so many messages that I could not reply to them all, but I will answer every single email and say thank you to every single backer.

Nov 17, 2013 - Thank you!

Thank you! The project has received $1785.5 donation in only two days. This is a true surprise for me, I was not expecting this after the failure of the crowdfunding campaign (which got 9 new backers by the way too).

I am working on the documentation of mobilECG in my free time, explaining every design decision. I will upload it once it's ready. These documents will be useful for the risk management file required for the certification.

The Story

Dear visitor,

I am an engineer who had worked at a medical device company designing clinical electrocardiographs for three years.

Fed up with the unreasonably high price, cumbersome design, and dishonest distribution practices of clinical ECG machines, I decided to create mobilECG, a clinical ECG that is different.

I quit my full-time job in February 2013 and invested all my personal savings, approximately $22k in the project. This was enough for me to design and build a working prototype that is already better than many $3000 devices.

I needed further $230k to get all the necessary regulatory approvals (CE, FDA) and manufacture the first 1000 units (the minimum required to keep the price low).

After a couple of failed attempts to get a government grant or an investment, some of my friends joined me and we set up a crowdfunding campaign. We offered the device for $299, which is one-tenth the price of similar devices on the market.

I had no money left at this point, so I took out a loan to promote the campaign at several places. Sadly, our campaign video received less than 2500 views due to being mistargeted. The campaign failed with about $6200 out of $230k. Since it was a fixed-funding campaign, people will get their money back and we'll see nothing of it.

I can't continue working on this project due to my financial situation, but I don't want to just put it in the drawer. At least it would be good to know that I helped humanity. So I am publishing the hardware design and source code under a license which will allow others to finalize and manufacture it, or reuse parts of it in other projects.

Best Regards,
Péter Isza
founder of mobilECG

Gallery

Click the image to see the next one.