Electrocardiograph Biocard, company Chirana, made in Stará Turá, Czech Repubic, 1980-1990.
The Biocard portable single-channel electrocardiograph was developed by Chirana Stará Turá in the second half of the 1970s. The Biocard was on sale between 1980 and 1992.
Biocard was designed by a team of experts led by engineer Jozef Pilát directly in Stará Turá. At that time, the complete development of ECG devices within the Chirana concern was provided by the Medical Technology Research Institute in Brno.
A single-channel EKG reads voltage values from individual leads one after the other and writes them down on heat-sensitive paper.
Chirana presented the new device together with other devices at the International Engineering Fair in Brno in 1978. Due to its small size and weight (5.8 kg with accessories), the Biocard was intended primarily for field work, for ambulances and racing surgeries, home visits, field infirmaries and sports medicine. Compared to Startest, it had a larger recording width, was more resistant to external interference and protected against defibrillation shocks, and had simpler operation and service. The device was tested at the Prague Medical Electronics Laboratory, a vital institution for technological innovation in Czechoslovak cardiology since the 1960s, on 2 . internal clinic in Bratislava and OÚNZ in Opava. It won the award for the best product of the resort and more than 10,000 pieces were produced in total. In the 1980s, it was part of the equipment of a number of workplaces, from the internal unit of intensive metabolic care in Prague's IKEM, through the Brno rescue service, to rural polyclinics.