Holter Comparison
Should I buy the DR200 or the DR400 Holter?
Answered by John Ziemann, President of ALBA Medical
If you are looking to buy a Holter, you will see that we have two models available, the DR200 and the DR400. The DR200 is a Holter with typically 5 wires, a removable battery, and a removable flash card for transmission. On that flash card is a file called flash.dat that is sent to ALBA Medical for processing after the study is recorded. The DR200 is approximately the size of an old-school beeper.
The DR400 is a smaller unit. It is the size of a car remote fob. On the back of the DR400, there are 3 snaps to which you attach 3 ECG electrodes. The machine is held onto the left side of the animal using the adhesion of the three electrodes to keep it in place.
This small DR400 has an internal battery and internal, non-removable memory. The unit is provided with a USB charging dock that connects to a computer. It must be charged before every use. The charging process takes about 45 minutes. Once charged, you will use a PC program called "PC Patch" to erase the DR400s memory and enter the patient ID. After these two things are done, the unit is disconnected from the USB dock and connected to the animal. There is only one button and one orange/green light on the device. A handy reference guide is provided showing the different meanings of the blinking and steady orange and green lights. After the machine is connected to the animal, you would then start the recording by pressing the button on the unit.
With our DR200 unit, there is an EKG preview screen where the hook-up technician would see the EKG tracings prior to finalizing the recording startup. This screen was intentionally made to not be shown during the 24-hour period. These machines were originally designed for humans, and you do not want a human patient to see their EKG for 24 hours because they can potentially get nervous and call the prescribing clinic all day and night long.
Because the DR400 has no LCD screen for viewing the hook-up quality, a different approach is taken. There is a red USB Bluetooth dongle that is supplied to work with the DR400. This USB dongle must be installed and paired with the PC Patch program on the computer. Once this is set up properly, the EKG will automatically display on a pop-up window on the computer screen when the event button is pressed and the patient is 30 feet or closer to the computer.
The intent of this Bluetooth-transmitted hook-up EKG preview was made for human Doctor's offices. Typically, a human would be connected to the DR400, the EKG would be quickly viewed for good quality, and then the patient would be sent home. The big advantage for us in the veterinary market is that the animal is sometimes in our home or clinic for the entire 24 hours. The EKG preview can be viewed whenever you want during the 24-hour period with the DR400.
This may be used in two ways by our customers who are monitoring animals. Dog owners at home would use this feature to periodically check the hook-up quality of their 24-hour period. Veterinarians who are housing their patients for a 24-hour period can use this machine as a real-time basic telemetry monitor. Both features are great benefits to the user.
The DR200s will still be produced for many years to come, and ALBA will be selling both the DR200 and DR400 units going forward.
There are some customers who will benefit from the DR200 rather than the DR400. The DR200 is a ready-to-go machine. It can be taken out of the box and applied to a patient in minutes. There is no special installation and minimal training. For this reason, customers who are from a dog club, where the machine will be passed around from member to member, will be recommended the DR200 for sale. Customers who have an aversion to technology will also be recommended the DR200. The DR400 software is not Mac compatible, and there is no plan to make it Mac compatible in the future, so only Windows PC customers can use the DR400.
The DR400 will only be recommended to customers buying their own machine, or maybe in situations when buying a machine with one or two partners. The installation process is as follows: Download the free PC Patch from our website. Install the USB dock. Pair the dongle with the PC Patch program inside of the program's settings. This is not too big of a deal, but it can be considered an easy to medium-level computer undertaking.
With understanding the advantages of the DR400 and understanding that there is an installation process involved, the next question would be as to which machine to choose.
My opinion, as someone in this field for 30 years, is this:
For Humans: I would say that the patient comfort of the DR400 is considerably better than the DR200 for human use. If you have ever personally worn a Holter for 24 hours, you will understand what I am saying here. The DR200 has wires, and the machine is on your belt all day and you must go to work, and you have wires in your shirt, and then you will sleep with this machine, etc. For that reason, this patch Holter has a major patient comfort advantage. I have worn it myself, and the human patient will literally forget that they are wearing it. So, for the human patient's comfort. I say that the DR400 is the best choice.
For Animals: I would assess the DR400 as being "minimally" better for the comfort of the animal patient. The weight difference between a 3-ounce machine and a 1-ounce machine is negligible for even a small animal. The animal must still wear a vest, and that adds the same shock factor to their day either way. Underneath the vest, the animal doesn't care that there are less wires inside there. For these reasons, I feel that both the DR200 and the DR400 offer the same patient comfort for an animal. If there is any difference in the experience of wearing the two machines, then it would be negligible.
So, for that and other reasons, we are going to go forward and co-sell the DR200 and the DR400 equally to customers who are monitoring animals. They are both roughly the same cost and have the same exact recording specifications. You can't go wrong with either of these machines.
Thanks for your attention to this document. John Ziemann, ALBA Medical
If you are looking to buy a Holter, you will see that we have two models available, the DR200 and the DR400. The DR200 is a Holter with typically 5 wires, a removable battery, and a removable flash card for transmission. On that flash card is a file called flash.dat that is sent to ALBA Medical for processing after the study is recorded. The DR200 is approximately the size of an old-school beeper.
The DR400 is a smaller unit. It is the size of a car remote fob. On the back of the DR400, there are 3 snaps to which you attach 3 ECG electrodes. The machine is held onto the left side of the animal using the adhesion of the three electrodes to keep it in place.
This small DR400 has an internal battery and internal, non-removable memory. The unit is provided with a USB charging dock that connects to a computer. It must be charged before every use. The charging process takes about 45 minutes. Once charged, you will use a PC program called "PC Patch" to erase the DR400s memory and enter the patient ID. After these two things are done, the unit is disconnected from the USB dock and connected to the animal. There is only one button and one orange/green light on the device. A handy reference guide is provided showing the different meanings of the blinking and steady orange and green lights. After the machine is connected to the animal, you would then start the recording by pressing the button on the unit.
With our DR200 unit, there is an EKG preview screen where the hook-up technician would see the EKG tracings prior to finalizing the recording startup. This screen was intentionally made to not be shown during the 24-hour period. These machines were originally designed for humans, and you do not want a human patient to see their EKG for 24 hours because they can potentially get nervous and call the prescribing clinic all day and night long.
Because the DR400 has no LCD screen for viewing the hook-up quality, a different approach is taken. There is a red USB Bluetooth dongle that is supplied to work with the DR400. This USB dongle must be installed and paired with the PC Patch program on the computer. Once this is set up properly, the EKG will automatically display on a pop-up window on the computer screen when the event button is pressed and the patient is 30 feet or closer to the computer.
The intent of this Bluetooth-transmitted hook-up EKG preview was made for human Doctor's offices. Typically, a human would be connected to the DR400, the EKG would be quickly viewed for good quality, and then the patient would be sent home. The big advantage for us in the veterinary market is that the animal is sometimes in our home or clinic for the entire 24 hours. The EKG preview can be viewed whenever you want during the 24-hour period with the DR400.
This may be used in two ways by our customers who are monitoring animals. Dog owners at home would use this feature to periodically check the hook-up quality of their 24-hour period. Veterinarians who are housing their patients for a 24-hour period can use this machine as a real-time basic telemetry monitor. Both features are great benefits to the user.
The DR200s will still be produced for many years to come, and ALBA will be selling both the DR200 and DR400 units going forward.
There are some customers who will benefit from the DR200 rather than the DR400. The DR200 is a ready-to-go machine. It can be taken out of the box and applied to a patient in minutes. There is no special installation and minimal training. For this reason, customers who are from a dog club, where the machine will be passed around from member to member, will be recommended the DR200 for sale. Customers who have an aversion to technology will also be recommended the DR200. The DR400 software is not Mac compatible, and there is no plan to make it Mac compatible in the future, so only Windows PC customers can use the DR400.
The DR400 will only be recommended to customers buying their own machine, or maybe in situations when buying a machine with one or two partners. The installation process is as follows: Download the free PC Patch from our website. Install the USB dock. Pair the dongle with the PC Patch program inside of the program's settings. This is not too big of a deal, but it can be considered an easy to medium-level computer undertaking.
With understanding the advantages of the DR400 and understanding that there is an installation process involved, the next question would be as to which machine to choose.
My opinion, as someone in this field for 30 years, is this:
For Humans: I would say that the patient comfort of the DR400 is considerably better than the DR200 for human use. If you have ever personally worn a Holter for 24 hours, you will understand what I am saying here. The DR200 has wires, and the machine is on your belt all day and you must go to work, and you have wires in your shirt, and then you will sleep with this machine, etc. For that reason, this patch Holter has a major patient comfort advantage. I have worn it myself, and the human patient will literally forget that they are wearing it. So, for the human patient's comfort. I say that the DR400 is the best choice.
For Animals: I would assess the DR400 as being "minimally" better for the comfort of the animal patient. The weight difference between a 3-ounce machine and a 1-ounce machine is negligible for even a small animal. The animal must still wear a vest, and that adds the same shock factor to their day either way. Underneath the vest, the animal doesn't care that there are less wires inside there. For these reasons, I feel that both the DR200 and the DR400 offer the same patient comfort for an animal. If there is any difference in the experience of wearing the two machines, then it would be negligible.
So, for that and other reasons, we are going to go forward and co-sell the DR200 and the DR400 equally to customers who are monitoring animals. They are both roughly the same cost and have the same exact recording specifications. You can't go wrong with either of these machines.
Thanks for your attention to this document. John Ziemann, ALBA Medical