Which Are The Most Accurate ECG Devices to Study the Accuracy of Consumer Grade Heart Rate Monitors?

Rob ter Horst often mentions in his reviews on YouTube that his Polar H10 is an ECG device

  • but is it the most accurate ECG device for this purpose?

The group of the cardiologist Milind Y. Desai used for their study the Q-Tel RMS:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732081/

  • We did not check all the details of these devices. They can be bought on ebay for around 8000 USD:
  • These device have multiple components. Let us request a quote from Q-Tel RMS if we want to buy one:

https://www.welchallyn.com/content/welchallyn/ca/en/products/categories/cardiopulmonary/cardiac-rehabilitation/q-tel.html

  • and these are as we know not for mobile use, as we can see here on this picture:
  • Another study with the Polar OH1:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217288

used a

g.Nautilus MULTI PURPOSE ECG device

  • They have an A/D resolution of 24 bit:
  • We did not request a quote at g.Nautilus, whe just quick & dirty used the product configuratior of g.tec medical to see which product could fit best:

Wearable Amplifier g.Nautilus Multi-Purpose 8 Channel g.SAHARA

€ 4.990,00

Software g.Recorder Professional € 2.655,00

TOTAL € 7.990,00

  • g.Tec multipurpose has 24 bit A/D resolution

The Schiller Medilog AR12 Plus Holter Recorder

used by the Swiss Federal Institute of Sports Magglingen used to test the Polar H10 has an A/D resolution of 12 bit. This is the same resolution Bitalino ECG for 200 USD has.

  • For doing research, 16 bit devices at a minimum are used according to the Bitalino support. An information whe received from the Bitalino support at a time, where it was still possible to reach the Bitalino support.