 Willem Einthoven Invents the First EKG Machine The Wright brothers took off on their first airplane flight, and a Dutch physician and physiologist named Willem Einthoven would also zoom into history by inventing the first electrocardiogram (EKG) machine. The EKG machine—which records the electrical activity of the heart—has become so popular and easy to use that a recording can be made at home or in a doctor’s office. Yet before Einthoven’s invention came along, many heart problems went undetected. The idea of measuring the electrical activity produced by the heart had been suggested in the late 19th century, but doctors could not figure out how to measure the small amounts of current. Willem Einthoven finally came up with a solution. The physiology professor combined his medical training with an interest in physics to invent a machine he called the “string galvanometer.” The string, actually a thin wire of platinum or silvered quartz suspended in a magnetic field, moved in response to an electric current. Einthoven continued to perfect his invention over the next 18 years so that the movements of the string could be magnified and recorded on paper as an electrocardiogram (EKG). He was then able to study the EKGs of patients, and match different patterns of electrical activity to different kinds of heart damage or disease. Electrocardiology has developed as a new field of study and become a key component of cardiology itself. EKG machines became so useful that they are a critical component of coronary care units, where hospital staff can monitor and treat disturbed heart rates and rhythms. The invention of the EKG machine has led to the significant reduction in deaths caused by heart disease, and Einthoven received the greatest award in medicine: the Nobel Prize (in 1924). Einthoven’s invention paved the way for other cardiology milestones in later decades, including open-heart surgery. Today, the modified Einthoven machine is a portable device that is key part of preventive medicine. Besides its use to identify heart damage, the EKG machine is instrumental in monitoring a patient’s response to heart medication. | 
