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This document presents the methodology for designing an electrocardiograph capable of acquiring IEC 60601-2-25-compliant signals. The objective of developing this methodology is to address a signal incompatibility problem that has existed in academia for years, specifically in physiological processing research. This problem is related to the signal's sampling rate and/or noise levels, and it becomes evident when one signal processing method is intended to work with another, either as a subsequent or simultaneous process. Even though matching algorithms can be implemented to remedy this incompatibility problem, the ultimate solution is the standardization of signals, which depends exclusively on the standardization of hardware. The signal incompatibility problem is urgent to solve because it makes the integration and scalability of different academic works difficult, preventing academia from reaching the stage of development that commercial equipment displays in automatic interpretation procedures. The design methodology presented in this document addresses the stated problem by creating an open-source hardware device capable of acquiring compliant signals, with careful consideration given to Signal Integrity and EMC concepts—a methodology that can be extended to other physiological acquisition systems. The expedited availability of the device's design documentation and fabrication files is also an advantage of this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous papers report the efficiency of the automatic interpretation capabilities of commercial algorithms. Unfortunately, these algorithms are proprietary, and academia has no means of directly contributing to these results. In fact, nothing at the same stage of development exists in academia. Despite the extensive research in ECG signal processing, from signal conditioning to expert systems, a cohesive single application for clinical use is not ready yet. This is due to a serious lack of coordination in the academic efforts, which involve not only algorithms for signal processing, but also the signal acquisition equipment itself. For instance, the different sampling rates and the different noise levels frequently found in the available signal databases can cause severe incompatibility problems when the integration of different algorithms is desired. Therefore, this work aims to solve this incompatibility problem by providing the academic community with a diagnostic-grade electrocardiograph. The intention is to create a new standardized ECG signals database in order to address the automatic interpretation problem and create an electrocardiography system that can fully assist clinical practitioners, as the proprietary systems do. Achieving this objective is expected through an open and coordinated collaboration platform for which a webpage has already been created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]