The development of monitoring techniques in mobile coronary care

Mobile coronary care was first introduced by Pantridge and Geddes at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1966. Traditional emergency equipment i.e. defibrillation and monitors were unsuitable for application in this environment. In the succeeding years the defibrillator was made highly portable, and significantly reduced in size. Specialized monitoring apparatus was also developed to provide display and recording facilities to meet the special needs of the mobile coronary care unit. However, current display systems utilize the cathode ray oscilloscope, which does not lend itself to miniaturization, is fragile, and cannot be placed at close proximity to the patient. A flat screen electroluminescent matrix of 256 X 128 dots has been developed as a physiological data display. The panel achieves a line density of approximately 83 per inch and with a time compressed memory and interpolated drive technique provides an acceptable display.