Medicomp, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Therapeutics, has launched Holter Monitoring equipment on the International Space Station. Medicomp was selected to provide cardiac monitoring equipment by CNES, the French Space Agency, for the Cardiomed suite of biomedical products.
Cardiomed expects to utilise Medicomp’s durable Decipher Holter Monitoring system, complete with the proprietary Diogenes ECG algorithm. Medicomp’s Decipher Holter Monitor is a pager-sized ECG device capable of classifying many different arrhythmias.
The International Space Station’s Cardiomed equipment will provide real-time cardiovascular monitoring of astronauts and cosmonauts. Cardiomed is made up of a suite of medical instruments, including Medicomp’s Decipher Holter Monitor.
Medicomp’s Decipher Holter Monitor is expected to be worn by cosmonauts and astronauts for 24 hours while going about their daily activities on the International Space Station in order to detect irregular arrhythmias. The collected data allows the Cardiomed scientists to gain a deeper understanding of how the human cardiovascular system responds under microgravity conditions.
Reportedly, in 1994, Medicomp was selected to provide the joint Russian and French space programs with the systems for ECG monitoring of cosmonauts as they lived and worked in the Mir Space Station. It was the equipment that detected Cosmonaut Commander Tsibliev’s cardiac arrhythmia, indicating an irregular heart beat, while he was aboard the Mir.
Dan Balda, president and CEO of Medicomp, said: “We are very proud to offer a technology that can help physicians monitor the crew of the International Space Station and gain insight on the effect of microgravity on the human heart while we continue to advance diagnostic cardiology here on earth.
“We are working to become the standard cardiac monitoring technology in commercial space travel. Surpassing the rigorous quality checks required to utilize our monitors in space should give our current and future customers great confidence.”