This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Marquette Electronics 8000 Holter System computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

John Eve says:
I''ve been a Field Engineer with Marquette Electronics (now part of GE Medical) for the last 20 years. I installed and did many service calls on this system.

This system was called the Marquette 8000 Holter System. It''s purpose was to analyze 24 hr tape recordings of a patients heart activity to determine any abnormalities. The main computer used a DEC 11/23 Processor, 1MB memory board, serial board (J-Board), SCSI HD Controller Card, an Array Processor Board, and a graphics controller board. The CRT was monochrome and not touchscreen. The printer was a 9 pin dot matrix type. The main boot hard drive was 80 MB and the storage drive was a 160 MB.

It was a decent system, but a real pain to work on. It was not a real DOS system. It used what was known as DEC-anese and was single purpose only.

Hi Kent, John, Randy... Yes, this really does bring back memories. If I recall correctly, we sometimes built about 25 to 30 of these systems per month, but probably averaged closer to 20. My department also built the Holter recorders, and I am thinking we produced about 100 per month of those.

Hey Kent, John...wow, this brings back memories!...Yes, was actually a DEC 11/23 running RSX-11...X-Y vector display vs. raster scan CRT...I still remember some RSX-11...ACT/ALL, etc. Clinically historicaly as it was the worlds first computer restrospective Holter scanner. Prior to that a clinician would have to sit in front of a screen and watch 24 hrs of ECG data buzz on a screen and halt on any aberrant beats to be recorded. This system. would play in and digitize the analog recorded ECG from the cassette reader (could also purchase a TEAC reel-reel as an option) recorded at 1 3/4 ips, "digest" the ECG and parse out ventricular vs normal vs SVE aberrant morphologies. This was the predecessor to the Laser SXP, another DEC 11/23 based Holter system. The new Holter recorders such as Mortara Instrument Inc. weigh less than an ounce and are the size of your thumb - scan on any PC - no need to look at the Run light anymore for activity!

I also worked for MEI (Marquette Medical) over 15 years ago.(pre -G.E.) The other comments are correct. It is a tape based Holter Analyzer system. It was(is) used in a hospital, large clinic or large cardiology office.

The way the system functioned: a cardiac patient would wear a Holter cassette recorder on his/her body for 24/48 hours and the tape would record all the patients heart beats. After 24/48 hours the tape was removed from the recording device and played back into the system. The Holter system analyzed the patient''s beat to beat data (for heart abnormalities) and constructed reports for a technician or doctor to review.

Marquette dominated the cardiology (Stress,EKG $ Holter) business in the US during the 1980s and this unit probably sold new for around $35-55,000.00. I have seen US customers as of July 2003 still using this unit. ( South Texas )

The system was developed at the Biomedical Engineering Group at MIT using a database of 50 annotated Holter tape recordings. The data base consisted of the 100-series (basic EKG structures) and the 200-series (complex arrhythmia and beat morphology) classification challenges. The 30 minute recordings were annotated beat-by-beat by the consensus of five cardiologists. The development of the data base was lead by Roger Mark, M.D., Ph.D.
The hardware design and first software versions constituted Paul Schluter''s Ph.D. work at MIT. He later joined Marquette and led a team of developers for the commercial implementation of the system.
The first high performance software processing for this system, using cluster analysis and projection methods, was developed by Wolfram Jarisch, then at the BME group of MIT. He demonstrated its performance February 10, 1984.
Using tools from systems analysis the innovative approach could exceed human expert interpretation. Clarification and verification of its performance in terms of human vs. machine capabilities required careful EKG re-examination for final characterization. The development and software implementation of the new analysis approach (in C on a PDP-11) was accomplished in (only) three weeks.

Demonstrated prototype software February 10, 1984 at MIT. The initial version was written in the preceding 3 weeks. The software was based on new clustering and projection ideas. The software system, running on a DEC 11/23, outperformed consensus beat labels annotated by 5 cardiologists on the most difficult data sets, especially tape $207 of the MIT Holter Database tape. The software was subsequently adapted by Marquette Electronics for integration into hardware.

I supported this product for years and worked on scores of them both in the field and depot. The example shown is an early model, later ones were more compact and had laser printers. Also 760MB SCSI drives. The recorders used included SEER a solid state recorder. A few had green screens while most were orange.
Despite the archaic tech it was a remarkably accurate machine and served the industry faithfully.

This system was used to scan and report on HOLTER RECORDINGS that record EKG data over 24 or 48 Hours to detect irregularities in heart Rhythms. The monitor is a special type of graphics display that was able to display the heart beats in high resolution monochrome using vector beam technology. The acquisition module that actually read the data from the Cassette Tape is shown in the picture behind the keyboard to the left. It ran the RSX11 Operating system.

Marquette Electronics once manufactured an EKG machine based on the HP-150 Touchscreen II. It has a plasma touch display, and it can also be used as a regular DOS-compatible computer.

I recall my mother coming back from the doctor wearing the recording device for this machine somewhere between the late 1980s to early 1990s. The recording device looked like a somewhat bulky walkman in a leather pouch hanging from a strap (to put over your shoulder) with wires connected to the patient.
Personally, I couldn''t imagine the discomfort of trying to sleep with the bulky recording device attached.