KardiaMobile Card Wallet-Sized Personal EKG Device - Record Single-Lead EKGs On The Go and Detect Irregular Heartbeats - by AliveCor

This is an amazing and simple product. Follow the instructions to load the app on a phone, and the app is very user friendly. Records a good simple ECG, sufficient to see the pulse pattern and detect anomalies. I used it specifically to observe AFIB and it reliably detected this artifact. Does not do bp, I use a separate cuff for that. As it records the plot, it also records pulse rate, which allowed me to manage a medication for tachycardia. Also generates reports which can be forwarded to med staff.

I’ve been using the KardiaMobile 6-lead for about 4 years and am very happy with its abilities. I just purchased the KardiaMobile card and have started using it when I don’t have access to the 6-lead. The setup was easy. Just follow the prompts in the app to get established. To turn on, just squeeze the on button between your thumb and index finger and feel the click. To keep the device on, you have to touch the two electrodes with your thumbs within 10 seconds, or it turns off. I would have liked a longer time for this disconnect, as I usually am trying to look at the screen on my iPad/iPhone and need an extra finger to select my options. Still, once you get used to it, this becomes less of an issue. Holding the card between your fingers can result in a great deal of artifact on the tracing, due to minor shaking/vibrations of your thumb. With concentration, you can lessen this movement, or just place the card on a flat surface and use your index fingers. The card only provides a single lead tracing, but in most cases that is all you need. Rarely, one of the other 5 leads on the 6-lead device might help clarify the rhythm, but most of the time in the emergency department or sitting in the back of an ambulance, a single lead is sufficient. Remember the old medical student axiom, “fast or slow, regular or irregular”. That is what this device will tell you. A fast rhythm can make you feel exactly the same as a slow rhythm or an irregular rhythm. To be honest, the main advantage of this device is to capture a rhythm when you are away from your physician’s office so you can take it and show it to her/him. I can’t tell you how many times a patient will describe some irregular feeling in their pulse, yet when I hook them up to my monitor, their rhythm is stone cold normal. It is a game changer to have a copy of that weird rhythm captured by this device. As others have noted, this device won’t tell you if you are having a heart attack - nothing will replace an EKG. It will tell you “fast or slow, regular or irregular”. It takes a fair bit of training to sort out the various rhythms your heart can produce. An irregular rhythm is not always atrial fibrillation. Extra beats - SVE (PVCs/PACs); atrial flutter; various types of heart block; etc…, can all look similar on a single lead rhythm strip. The best strategy is to take your reading and show it to your physician. Don’t get hung up on trying to integrate with other technology, parameters, or communication. Just keep it simple. You can also take advantage of the cardiology consult that this company offers, for a quick assessment. Some reviewers complain about the battery life of only around 2 years. At $50 a year to tell me if my meds are keeping my PVCs under control, that’s a bargain, just skip one restaurant bill a year. Remember, regardless of what you think your rhythm shows, or the device says, if you feel bad, that’s your body speaking to you. Call 911 or get someone to take you to an ER - NOW!

Worked well to show my doctor that I had a problem. I was having premature atrial beats which came off and on. So I could go to the doctor and they would not be happening at the time. This let me document for the doctor they were happening.

The Amazon page for this product states “NO SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED. Takes a six-lead EKG and detects Atrial Fibrillation, Bradycardia, Tachycardia, and Normal Sinus Rhythm without a KardiaCare subscription.”The Quick Start Guide included in the product box contradicts this, saying it takes only a “single-lead EKG”, and reminds the user to “Make sure your KardiaCare subscription is active. . . This device functions only with KardiaCare.”Not mentioned on either the Amazon product page nor in the paper quick start guide, but on buried on kardia.com is the fact that this product contains a non-replaceable, non-rechargeable battery that is good for only up to two years of normal use. I would have never ordered this had I known it had such a short useful life.After installing the Kardia app on my phone and upon attempting to create my account, I’m told “Something went wrong. This email has already been taken”. It then goes on to explain that their software platform now powers the Omron apps, and that either account can be used to sign in. My Omron credentials didn’t work, so I did a password reset and they still didn’t work. So now I had no way to use the app and therefore no way to use this product.I’m not entirely surprised by this, considering the nightmare I had with the Omron app a couple years ago. See my review for the Omron Platinum Blood Pressure Monitor. The original Omron app worked great to log my BP readings to my phone and I did not even need to create an account. Then about 6 months after purchase, an update to the app now required account creation, demanding tons of personal information and granting the app permissions to access virtually everything on my phone for no justifiable reason. Immediately after setting up the updated app, my phone was effectively paralyzed until I uninstalled it, which was extremely difficult to do on an unresponsive phone. Even rebooting did not help.Now that I know that these are the same geniuses behind KardiaMobile, I’m just going to return the product for a refund.