Computerized arrhythmia monitoring systems: a review

The principles and different types of commercially available computerized ventricular arrhythmia detection algorithms are reviewed. Algorithms use either the feature extraction method or the cross correlation method. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method. The trend is to use some aspects of both methods. The American Hospital Association database may radically change the marketplace. Whether or not a system is successful in a clinical setting is dependent upon many factors including 1) whether the nurses believed that they were part of the decision process; 2) the human engineering for ease of everyday use; 3) the extent and type of in-service education; and 4) the number of false-positives and false-negatives called by the algorithm.