Funding outcome

It is common for children to be seen by a heart specialist (cardiologist) due to the child feeling palpitations, which is the feeling that the heart is beating abnormally. One of the key ways to determine the cause of palpitations is to record the heart rhythm at the time of feeling palpitations. This can be difficult if the palpitations are short or infrequent. The current monitor that we use for this purpose is called an event recorder, which is a recording unit placed on the chest at the time of feeling palpitations, with the recording sent through a landline phone to the doctor's office. The challenges with using this system include having to carry the monitor with the patient so that it is available at the time of feeling palpitations, the chance of poor quality recordings if not used properly, and the limited time that we can provide this monitor for patients (usually 2-4 weeks). A new monitor (AliveCor Kardia) has been developed to help with recording the heart rhythm in patients with palpitations. This is a much smaller monitor with two metal plates where the patient places two fingers from each hand. The monitor connects to an application on a smartphone and can easily be attached to the phone. The recording can be seen on the application, and the patient is told if the recording is of good quality. The recording can be emailed from the patient's smartphone to the cardiologist's office. This monitor has been shown to be useful in adults with abnormal heart rhythms, but there are few studies looking at using these monitors in children. We would like to study if the AliveCor Kardia monitors improve our ability to record the heart rhythm at the time of palpitations in children. We would also like to study how long it takes to determine the cause of the palpitations cost of using the monitor and how patients feel about using this monitor.