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THE HEARTALARM™ WRISTWATCH

Every year, over one and a half million people suffer heart attacks in the United States alone. A third of them do not survive. Yet, according to a study sponsored by the American Heart Association, many of those who die from heart attacks could have been saved if they had gone to the emergency room just one hour sooner.

Many heart attack victims ignore the early symptoms, mistaking them for indigestion, muscle pain, or ordinary fatigue. By the time they become worried enough to seek medical attention, it is too late. If the same people could be warned that their symptoms are serious, millions of lives would be saved.

Now, the early warning system is here. The HeartAlarm™ warns the wearer an hour or more before a heart attack occurs. Before the heart attack, there is time to go to an emergency room and receive medications that will minimize or even prevent the attack.

The HeartAlarm™ wristwatch works by sensing the electrical signals that the heart produces with each contraction. These signals can be sensed anywhere on the body's surface, including the wrist. When a blood clot blocks the flow of blood in the coronary artery, depriving some heart muscles of oxygen, a different electrical signal is produced. A microcomputer in the HeartAlarm™ screens the electrical signals, and sounds an alarm only when it receives typical heart attack signals. False alarms should not occur.

The HeartAlarm™ wristwatch is different from the wearable monitors currently available. Other monitors are cumbersome harnesses that are very expensive, and available only by prescription. They do not warn the wearer of heart attacks, but keep a record of the heart's electrical activity that must be studied by a physician. The experimental types that can sound an alarm are still cumbersome and expensive. The HeartAlarm™ watch is the first and only system of its kind -- practical, lightweight, inexpensive, and designed to warn the wearer at the first sign of a heart attack.

The HeartAlarm™ is so unusual that its inventor, Doctor Kenneth Matsumura, was granted a patent by the United States Patent Office, which is respected worldwide for upholding strict standards of novelty and workability. The patent covers the crucial innovations that would allow a wristwatch-sized computer to screen heart signals sensed at the skin surface. Dr. Matsumura explained that this makes heart monitoring truly practical because, "You want something that everyone will wear, even people who feel healthy. Many people who have their first heart attacks appear perfectly normal during a medical examination. I figured that the only thing a healthy person would wear 'just in case' would be a wristwatch."

The HeartAlarm™ wristwatch is expected to sell for less than $100 at first; when a full range of styles and prices are available some should cost as little as $40.00.

News of the HeartAlarm™ has fired the imagination of millions of ordinary men and women. When Dr. Matsumura announced his invention, the story appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. One television newscaster said, "People can hardly wait for it to come out." Dr. Matsumura commented, "Judging by the calls flooding our switchboard, he's right. It looks like most people over forty will want to wear the HeartAlarm™. It could become as common as pocket calculators."