Your heart rate is an important measurement that can reveal how hard your heart is working. You may be interested in this information if you are an athlete in training. Also, you and your doctor will be monitoring your heart rate if you have, or suspect you have, cardiac disease. Different types of software are used based on how the device works.
History
Historically, your health care provider used the electrocardiogram or ECG to measure your heart rate and identify the type of beats. The ECG machine is used for this purpose whether you have heart disease or if you are looking to improve your athletic exercise tolerance. More recently, software has been developed that is used in portable devices that you can wear to measure and track your heart rate. The products have different ways of storing and sharing that information.
Significance
Your heart muscle receives electric impulses that cause it to beat. Your heart contracts when the electrical impulses move through the different chambers. Your heart beat varies, but on average it receives electrical impulses that cause it to beat between 60 and 100 times per minuted based on the type of activity you are engaged in. This is the average heart rate for children over 10 years old and adults. If you are an athlete with a specific heart rate training goal, use of measuring devices can help you adjust your training and nutrition based on your results.
Considerations
Your heart rate may be faster or slower than normal. When this happens, it can be a symptom of either a very healthy heart or one of the signs of heart disease. Your doctor will monitor your heart rate if you are being treated for cardiac disease. If you are an athlete in training, you may be performing specific exercises that impact your heart rate. Your coach or trainer may want you to wear heart rate monitoring software as one means of tracking the effectiveness of your training.
Telemedicine
Your health care provider may want you to wear heart rate monitoring software if you have congestive heart failure. The software used may include audio and video two-way communication as well as distance electrocardiography. Some types of software include on-site stethoscopes that can transmit your breath, heart and abdominal sounds back to your doctor. This type of care is known as telemedicine. Medicare and some health plans will pay for telemedicine services. Speak with your insurance carrier to determine your coverage options.
Types
A study published in "The International Arab Journal of Information Technology" is among one recent development in medical software. This study discusses a heart rate monitor that is embedded in to the outer layer of your heart. It is a compact microcontroller-based portable system used to measure your heart rate in real time. The device can send e-mails to your health care provider with details of your heart rate measurements. The study authors suggest this can be used for medical and sports training purposes.
There are many types and brands of sports heart rate monitors available on the market. Software and devices are available in special watches, handheld devices, finger clip and skin contact devices such as chest straps. Software circut boards and wireless receivers are also available.
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