Verizon teams with MCG to test cutting-edge technology

Drs. Guy Reed, chief of the MCG Section of Cardiology and Georgia Research Alliance Kupperman Eminent Scholar in Cardiovascular Medicine, and Elena V. Khasanshina, associate director of the Center for Telehealth and assistant professor of medicine, are co-investigators on the grant.

“This first step is only a part of the bigger picture,” Dr. Stachura says. “The critical question is whether you can even display an interpretable, 12-lead EKG on a device that’s either on the market now or nearly ready for the market. This whole thing makes no sense unless there is a reasonable, portable, wireless multi-functional device – what we want is a device that allows the cardiologist to get the call, view the EKG, interpret it and communicate the treatment decision.”

Over the next few months, Verizon will send the MCG team its marketable and near-marketable phones for testing.

“The next piece is to work with a database of already-diagnosed digital electrocardiograms,” he says. “We’ll know how they were officially interpreted the first time and then be able to tell whether this will really work.”

“We’ll put together teams that will look at these and say, ‘This will work. This won’t work,’” he says. “This close partnership with the Verizon technical people will allow us to provide our input to people who are developing the next generation technology.”

“Verizon is pleased to partner with the Medical College of Georgia on such an important healthcare initiative,” says Michelle Robinson, senior vice-president of Verizon. “We are proud of the work Dr. Max Stachura and his team are doing.”

Dr. Stachura and his team hope to identify a device that will work by September. MCG then would work with the Verizon Foundation to obtain funding for the next step.

The Verizon Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications. In 2007, the foundation awarded more than $67.4 million in grants to nonprofit agencies in the United States and abroad. For more information on the foundation, visit www.verizon.com/foundation.