ABC7 San Francisco spoke to Dr. Melissa Kong, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Silicon Valley Cardiology center in East Palo Alto. She says the ZIO Patch is worn on the patient's chest, replacing a traditional device called the Holter monitor, which is a separate unit connected to the chest with multiple leads.
While the Holter monitor limits patients' activities, ABC7 reports that the water-resistant ZIO Patch allows patients to both shower and exercise. And it's designed to collect data over a longer period of time -- two weeks rather than 24-48 hours with the Holter monitor -- to increase the odds of capturing a sporadic event such as heart arrhythmia.
At the end of two weeks, the patient mails the patch to the manufacturer, San Francisco-based iRhythm.
Technicians at iRhythm then retrieve a USB storage device from inside the patch and begin interpreting massive amounts of data.
Get more information on the patch and how it works from our sister station, KGO-TV.
