THE INSTITUTE For more than 100 years, doctors have relied on electrocardiography to measure the heart’s electrical activity. The technique has its origins in the work of Willem Einthoven, who in 1905 used a string galvanometer to conduct the first recording of a human electrocardiogram( EKG). The string galvanometer, which consists of a metal fiber stretched between two magnets, was originally developed by French engineer Clément Adair in 1872 to send telegrams.
Einthoven’s EKG work has now been commemorated with an IEEE Milestone. The IEEE Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) Section sponsored the nomination. Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments around the world.
“The string galvanometer offered the opportunity to record the human electrocardiogram in detail,” says IEEE Life Senior Member Wim van Etten, the section’s Milestone coordinator. “In this way the medical world received an important diagnostic tool to discover certain heart diseases.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Milestone dedication ceremony is still being planned.
