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By Ann-Marie Waters, Associate Editor

A mitten which resembles an oven glove could save lives by speeding up the diagnosis of heart attacks. The glove – called PhysioGlove and developed by an American company called Commwell Inc. is placed on the patient’s left hand and held against their chest. It contains tiny sensors in the material which pick up electrical activity in the heart and relay the information back to a portable heart monitor.

The PhysioGlove allows paramedics to quickly establish whether a patient has suffered a heart attack and the readings are far quicker than the results of an electrocardiogram (ECG). The manufacturers claim that it can perform a complete ECG in less than 60 seconds which is approximately a tenth of the duration of a conventional test!

Unlike the new PhysioGlove – an ECG requires specialised training – i.e. medical staff would need to ensure that 10 electrodes are precisely placed on the patient’s body in the correct position as an electrode would only have to be one millimetre out of place and the vital signs of a heart attack could go undetected. Also an ECG requires a patient’s chest to be shaved prior to attaching electrodes which could steal vital seconds off the process.