S’pore ‘life-saving’ phone unveiled in Barcelona
A new mobile phone developed in Singapore that can take pulse readings and send for an ambulance has been unveiled in Barcelona. The EPI Life mobile phone, equipped with mini electrocardiogram, takes pulse readings when fingers are pressed on a receptor. The phone then sends the results to a 24-hour medical call centre.
“We think it’s a revolution. It has clinical significance,” EPI medical chief Chow U-Jin said at the mobile industry’s annual conference in Barcelona. “Anywhere in the world you can use it as a phone but you are also able to transfer an ECG and get a reply,” Dr Chow said.
Dr Chow said a user would receive an SMS if his reading was normal. “If it’s severe, you get a call (that says) ‘sir, an ambulance is on the way’,” he said. EPI Life has three hospitals in Singapore, all of which carry the phone users’ history.
EPI Life costs US$700 (S$890), the price of a top range smartphone, and 2,000 of them have been on the market since 2010. “The most obvious targets are people with heart disease,” Dr Chow said.
Remember, February is Heart Disease Month! Contribute to your favorite Heart Disease Charity like Cardiovasular Research Foundation, American Heart Association, etc.
You can find more information on Heart Disease and the various charities and links on my blog!
Like scores of other women, my mother suffers from heart disease. As I’ve said in the past, heart disease is the #1 killer of women! Not breast cancer, as so many women are lead to believe.
Give your mother, grandmother, sister or aunt the gift of life with this incredible invention. EPI Life can be a combined birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc. gift if you are on a very tight budget like most Americans in this very difficult economy. The gift of life is priceless!