ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the overall functioning of a telecardiology system by using a block diagram and deals with digital acquisition of medical signals from patients and their preprocessing and compression techniques. It discusses the storage of medical data and their access by experts for analysis and provides a snapshot of trends in telecardiology systems in terms of faster and secure data communication and use of advanced gadgets. A typical telecardiology system consists of the following functional modules: acquisition and preprocessing module, communication systems module, and presentation module. In the context of telecardiology, medical signal compression assumes great importance. Mobile telecardiology refers to a situation where the patient is in mobile condition, in an ambulance being transferred to a hospital or in a high-altitude aircraft or mid-ocean ship. In the context of emergency telecardiology applications, note that a significant time is consumed in the error-check mechanism followed by decompression of the received data, before the cardiologist can access the medical signal.
