Cardiac diseases are fast becoming the leading cause of death around the world. Keeping in mind this rising trend, as early in 2009, our Chancellor Amma initiated  projects through AmritaWNA for the development of a holistic remote monitoring framework. The framework uses wireless sensors, smartphones, heterogeneous mobile networks and cloud analytics for early and timely detection of cardiac diseases in high risk patients, especially in rural regions.

This project got a further boost with the development of initial prototypes of a remote ECG monitoring device called Amrita Spandanam, which was inaugurated by the present Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi, during Amma’s birthday celebrations in 2013. Within two years of further development the device was being tested at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) with the help of doctors and clinical professors from the department of Cardiology, headed by Dr. Natarajan K. U.  and Dr. Harikrishnan M. S.

Seeing the progress made so far, the Instrumentation Development Program (IDP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, has extended a 2 year grant of more than Rs 4 million for further development and creation of a viable remote ECG Monitoring system for postoperative and high-risk cardiac patients. As an industry partner, Amrita Technologies will be also be a contributing entity in this project. The project is being spearheaded by Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh from AmritaWNA, Dr. Natarajan from AIMS and Mr. Pradeep Achan from Amrita Technologies.

Over the next two years, it is expected that the product will undergo further testing in hospitals and remote clinics across India. Apart from the monitoring of ECG of patients, the project also envisages the creation of a context aware software algorithm that can identify severe cardiac events and then warn nearby health care professionals, in this way caring for the neediest patients. The research and development team at AmritaWNA is also planning a large scale pilot deployment of this device and framework software in the 101 villages across India that have been adopted by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math.