Developing manufacturer-independent components for ECG viewing and for data exchange with ECG devices: can the SCP-ECG standard help?

In the context of HYGEIAnet, the regional health-telematics network of Crete, the Center for Medical Informatics and Health Telematics Applications (CMI-HTA) has explored the capabilities of several ECG devices and management systems. The focus was placed on the SCP-ECG (Standard Communications Protocol for computer-assisted Electrocardiography) standard, which defines a uniform format for the processing and storage of digital ECG recordings and specifies a means by which ECG devices and systems may exchange information. The development of a multi-manufacturer ECG viewer took more effort than expected. Although the SCP-ECG guidelines are sound and useful as far as they go, the protocol leaves too many degrees of freedom in a number of areas, so that the development of generic SCP-based software is, in practice, a difficult task. Moreover, the manufacturer´s degree of compliance with the SCP standard may be unclear, while there is no recognized body or institution that is able to certify the level of conformance