01
A photo, not a pile
The technician photographs the printed page on a phone. The photo check says what to fix before the photo is sent: blur, glare, poor light or a page that does not fill the frame.
For diagnostic centres
The printout waits in a pile, and the patient waits too
The machine prints the page and the work stops. The cardiologist (a heart doctor) may read it hours or days later. TraceRead turns a phone photo of that page into an AI first read for your own doctor to check.
- Who
- The ECG technician, right after the machine prints
- Their moment
- The printout goes into a pile for the heart doctor, who may read it hours or days later. The patient waits, or comes back.
- What they get
- Photograph the page. Seconds after the photo arrives, your reading doctor has the rebuilt tracing, the measurements and the patterns to check.
What stays the same
Your own doctors still read and sign. TraceRead does not replace the cardiologist, and it does not connect to your ECG machine: it reads the printed page. Nothing reaches a patient until a doctor has checked and signed it.
What changes
What changes for you
Four things change where the ECG is printed. The numbers behind them are further down this page.
02
Your doctor starts with more than paper
Your reading doctor opens the rebuilt trace drawn over the paper, the measurements (heart rate, PR interval, QRS, QT, QTc and heart axis) and the patterns TraceRead AI sees, each with a score from 0 to 100.
03
Weak photos are held, not guessed at
When the rebuilt trace looks unreliable, TraceRead gives no AI first read and asks for a new photo. A part of a lead that the paper does not show is never treated as a flat line.
04
Patient details stay off the photo
Before sending, the technician drags a box over the printed header, where the machine prints the patient's details. The box is painted into the photo on the phone, so the covered part never leaves it.
Words used on this page
- 12 lead ECG
- The standard ECG: 12 views of the heart's electrical activity, printed as 12 wavy lines.
- Rebuilt trace
- The digital line TraceRead makes from the photo, drawn back over the paper so a doctor can compare the two.
- Pattern
- Something TraceRead AI sees on the tracing. It is not a finding that the patient has a disease.
- Score
- How strongly TraceRead AI sees a pattern, from 0 to 100. It is not the chance that the patient has a disease. Each pattern has its own flag line, set on other ECGs so that patterns are not missed.
- PR interval
- The time from the start of the upper chambers' beat to the start of the lower chambers' beat.
- QRS
- How long the main beat of the lower chambers lasts.
- QT and QTc
- The time the lower chambers take to beat and recover. QTc is the QT corrected for heart rate.
- Heart axis
- The main direction of the heart's electrical activity, in degrees.
Your day
How it fits your day
The machine and the printing stay as they are. Four steps follow.
- Step 1
The machine prints
The technician prints the 12 lead ECG as usual, on A4 or US Letter paper, at 25 mm a second and 10 mm per millivolt, laid out as 3x4, 6x2 or 12x1.
- Step 2
The technician photographs the page
In the phone's web browser, with nothing to install. The photo check says what to fix. The technician covers the header and sends. If the network is down, the photo waits on the phone and sends itself when it is back.
- Step 3
TraceRead AI makes the first read
It finds the page, rebuilds the 12 tracings, measures them and lists the patterns it sees. In testing, 95 in 100 ECGs were read in 7.85 seconds or less.
- Step 4
Your doctor checks it
Your reading doctor compares the rebuilt line with the paper, keeps, edits or removes each pattern and checks every number. Nothing reaches the patient until a doctor has checked and signed it.
The numbers
What we measured
Each number says how many ECGs it was measured on and where it came from. They come from public research ECGs and from photos made by computer, not from patients at a clinic.
7.85 s
time to read 95 in 100 ECGs on a 2 vCPU, 4 GB server in AWS Cape Town (median 7.6 s, slowest 27.8 s), no graphics card
Measured on 97 photos made by computer. Source: Spike S7.
0 of 69
good frames wrongly flagged by the photo check, while it flagged every frame with blur of half a millimetre or more, large glare, poor light or a page too small
Measured on 522 frames of TraceRead test printouts with defects added on purpose. Source: Spike S6.
5.9%
photos held for a retake because the rebuilt trace looked unreliable
Measured on 500 photos made by computer. Source: Spike S3.
0.908
median match between the rebuilt trace and the original recording
Measured on 500 photos made by computer of printed PTB-XL test ECGs. Source: Spike S1.
These are engineering measurements, not clinical claims. The page on how TraceRead AI works shows every step of a real run with its numbers. See the evidence
Features
The features your team uses
TraceRead has ten named features. These six are the ones your technicians and doctors meet.
Photo check
CaptureThe phone checks the picture about five times a second for blur, glare, poor light and a page that does not fill the frame, and says what to fix.
- What code checks
- In testing on 522 frames it flagged every one with blur of half a millimetre or more, large glare, poor light or a page too small, and none of 69 good ones.
- What a person does
- The technician takes the photo and confirms the page.
Header cover
CaptureBefore sending, the technician drags a box over the printed header where a machine prints the patient's details.
- What code checks
- The box is painted into the photo on the phone, so the covered part never leaves it.
- What a person does
- The technician chooses what to cover.
Send when connected
CapturePhotos wait safely on the phone and send themselves when the network comes back. Each photo is kept near 1.5 MB.
- What code checks
- Each photo travels with a small record of how it was taken, and the server checks its type and size on arrival.
- What a person does
- Nobody has to wait by the phone.
Hold for retake
ReadWhen the rebuilt trace looks unreliable, TraceRead gives no first read and asks for a new photo.
- What code checks
- A fixed rule looks at the calibration pulses, the layout match and cut leads. It held 5.9% of 500 photos made by computer.
- What a person does
- The technician retakes the photo.
Trace rebuild
ReadTraceRead AI follows the ink of every lead and rebuilds it as a digital signal, 500 points a second.
- What code checks
- The rebuilt line is drawn back over the paper. On 500 photos made by computer it matched the original recordings at a median of 0.908.
- What a person does
- The doctor compares the red line with the paper.
Measures
InterpretHeart rate, PR interval, QRS, QT, QTc and heart axis, measured on all the leads together.
- What code checks
- Compared with reference ECG programs on 2,198 test ECGs: heart rate within 0.6 beats a minute and QTc within 16.8 ms on average.
- What a person does
- The doctor checks every number before signing.
Safety
A doctor checks every AI first read
TraceRead helps a doctor read an ECG. It does not stand in for one.
An AI first read is not the last word.
- A qualified doctor reviews every AI first read. Nothing reaches a patient until a doctor signs it.
- Do not rely on TraceRead alone in an emergency.
- A normal AI first read does not rule out heart disease.
- For adults, 18 and over.
Pricing
What it costs
A diagnostic centre chooses between paying for each AI first read and a monthly plan with reads included. Prices are in naira, with dollars as approximate.
Pay as you go
₦1,500per AI first read
about $1.10
Centre
₦120,000a month
about $88
At 80 reads a month the two cost the same. Above that, the Centre plan costs less.
Dollar figures are approximate, at ₦1,370 to the dollar.
Questions
Questions people ask
Do our technicians need to install anything?
No. The capture app runs in the phone's web browser. It checks each photo before it is sent and keeps photos on the phone until the network is back.
What if the photo is not good enough?
The phone's photo check says what to fix before the photo is sent. If the rebuilt trace still looks unreliable, TraceRead gives no AI first read and asks for a new photo. In testing, 5.9% of 500 photos made by computer were held for a retake.
Does the patient's name reach TraceRead?
TraceRead asks for no name, only age and sex. The technician covers the printed header on the phone, and the covered part never leaves the phone. Patient data stays in the AWS Cape Town region and is never sent to an outside AI service.
Which printed ECGs can it read?
Printed 12 lead ECGs from adults (18 and over), at the usual 25 mm a second and 10 mm per millivolt, laid out as 3x4, 6x2 or 12x1, on A4 or US Letter paper.
Does it replace our cardiologist?
No. A qualified doctor reviews every AI first read, and nothing reaches a patient until a doctor has checked and signed it. A normal AI first read does not rule out heart disease.
See it read an ECG from a photo
We show TraceRead reading public research ECGs, and talk through how your technicians print, photograph and hand over ECGs.