Why DC Rainmaker & Rob ter Horst could not convince us as sport heart rate monitor and treadmill sensor accuracy testers

Last Updated on November 13, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

DC Rainmaker critizises a paper of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio on his blog. He writes there about a paper of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio:

«Accuracy of commercially available heart rate monitors in athletes: a prospective study»

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31555543/

DC Rainmakers comment about this paper:

«this is only on a treadmill study , but not a real life scenario».

You can find this answer somewhere on his blog, as an answer to our question.

The answer of the MRIS to DC Rainmaker:

The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio used a very expensive scientific setup to test the accuracy of sports sensor, and not only a Polar H10 chest strap as a reference. To test the accuracy of sport heart rate monitors in a real life scenario scientifically with a setup at the highest level is as far as we know currently technically not possible.

And Rob ter Horst says on his YouTube channel basically:

His Polar H10 reference is better than an ECG since ECG devices have problems with ECG motion artifacts at higher acitivity levels.

The answer of the MRIS to DC Rainmaker:

This is only half the truth. For runs on a treadmill up to 15 km/h high quality ECG devices do not have issues with ECG motion artifacts, as a paper of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has showed:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31555543/

But ECG devices are the most accurate devices for this application. An example for this is the GE Case System:

Are Rob ter Horsts tests with his«wonder chest strap Polar H10» really interesting for scientists? Write it in the comments below. DC Rainmaker and Rob ter Horst could also not convince us about their accuracy tests and validation of treadmills. Rob tested 100 smartwatches, but not a single treadmill. We miss tests of these two reviewers with reference tools of the highest level. As a consequence the MRIS uses only Newgen medicals Treadmills:

https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s3/product/newgen-medicals-treadmill-treadmills-15855960

And will eventually buy a used Xioami walking pad A1 and use it with Home Assistant:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/xiaomi-treadmill-walkingpad-integration/204713

But only for evaluation purposes until we have something better. Is the Newgen medicals treadmill or the Xioami walking pad A1 a real scientific tool for home scientists? Write it to the comments below. We will not buy other new treadmills for our scientific home studies. The Newgen medicals treadmill was not checked in detail scientifically neither by DC Rainmaker nor Rob ter Horst. The only other treadmill with heart rate monitor which is currently interesting for us personally as a «home trainer» is the The GE Case System:

which costs (sale price): $13,249

https://www.cardiologyshop.com/ge-marquette-stress-systems.html

Is this device really worth that much? Write your opinion about this in the comments below. Can we not build such a device for much less money? We have discussed this here under the category «treadmill» in our journal:

https://petergamma.org/category/treadmill-calibration/

Both DC Rainmaker and Rob ter Horst could not convince us as scientific sports sensor accuracy testers as well as scientific treadmill accuracy testers. We miss high quality scientific tests of sports heart rate monitors and treadmills. We suppose if we would have scientific tests of these components at the highest level, the quality of those products would increase and prices trop. But we do not know of such tests.