Legacy of Innovation

Today’s diagnostic tools to monitor hearts can be contributed to two creative, persistent men, Norman “Jeff” Holter (1914-1983) and Bruce Del Mar (1913-2014). Their collaboration produced a commercially viable heart monitor known as the Holter Monitor. The Holter is a portable device for continuously monitoring heart activity for an extended period. The complete data is then analyzed for different sorts of heartbeats and rhythms.

Norman “Jeff” Holter, was a biophysicist whose interests included studying electrical activity in humans during their daily activities which spawned his lifelong pursuit to develop the Holter Monitor, a continuous multi-lead ECG monitoring device and playback scan system. Interestingly, Dr. Holter’s first broadcast of a radio-electrocardiogram (RECG) took place in 1947 and required 85 lbs. of equipment, which Dr. Holter wore on his back while riding a stationary bicycle. Dr. Holter also dreamed of the Holter becoming a single unit small enough for a coat pocket or purse, without sacrificing the continuous multi-lead recording. Dr. Holter teamed up with Bruce Del Mar in 1962 to pursue his dream. Del Mar’s role as an innovator and collaborator with Dr. Holter is especially important because his work spurred the development of an entire diagnostic outpatient cardiac monitoring industry. The Holter Research Foundation ultimately sold exclusive rights to the patent to Del Mar Engineering Laboratories, who became the acknowledged leader in Holter monitoring technology for over 40 years. In Mr. Del Mar’s latter years, his granddaughter, Vanessa Parsons, was able to demonstrate the first version of the ROCT monitor for him where he witnessed the bridge between Holter and Telemetry monitoring become realized.

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