Why does Rob ter Horst, post-doctoral researcher from the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna who is specialized in biological data analysis not tell us the truth about the gold standard for heart rate measurements – is he partly funded by Polar?

Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

The scientific paper

Lin LI. A concordance correlation coefficient to evaluate reproducibility.

Biometrics 1989

;45:255-68. 10.2307/2532051

which has been cited 8580 times to this date:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=A+Concordance+Correlation+Coefficient+to+Evaluate+Reproducibility&btnG=

• tells us about the requirements for gold standard heart rate measurements. These are:

• A three lead (or 3 channel) ECG device.
• The Mason-Likar electrode placement.
• ECG-based HR has to be determined by visual assessment of a trained research personnel.

But a paper of the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen, SFISM about the Polar H10 which is partly funded by Polar:

«RR interval signal quality of a heart rate monitor and an ECG Holter at rest and during exercise «

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004219

claims that the Polar H10:

« A simple chest strap such as the Polar H10 might be recommended as the gold standard for RR interval assessments if intense activities with strong body movements are investigated.»

Altough the Polar H10 does not meet the requirements for gold standard for HR measurements.

The paper was reviewed by Rob ter Horst:

Where he claims that the Polar H10 is the «gold standard in science». This is hard to believe.