title: The advantage of modular software design in computerized ECG analysis.
abstract: In the early 1970s, modular software design was advocated as a means to obtain better structured and more reliable software systems. Such a modular approach was also introduced for computerized ECG processing in 1972. The TNO Modular ECG/VCG interpretation system was developed along these lines. During the last decade, the algorithms of this system were thoroughly improved and evaluated. This resulted in 1983 in a new version of this system named MEANS (Modular ECG ANalysis System). This paper outlines the ideas of the modular approach as they were originally defined in 1972 and developed over the years. The usefulness and advantages of these ideas will be discussed based on 12 years of experience. It appeared that modularity is the ideal approach to the development and maintenance of complex systems such as for ECG/VCG interpretation.
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D012984:Software