About us

History

A New Concept in 1969: The Quantitative Electrocardiography

Cardionics SA was founded on 30 April 1969 by the famous Belgian company Union Minière.

Cardionics SA purchased an ECG program developed by IBM in collaboration with a group of American cardiologists from Mount Sinaï Hospital in New York.

Cromed, a sub-company of Chromalloy American Corporation, ensured the distribution of this ECG system (software and hardware) in the USA.

Union Minière and Chromalloy American Corporation decided to found Cardionics SA in order to widespread hardware and software for PC-based ECG signal analysis in Europe.

Générale de Belgique… until 1989

Cardionics SA was bound up with Union Minière and Générale de Belgique for the next 20 years.

Cardionics SA’s major shareholders have been successively:

Union Minière and CIG were subsidiaries of Générale de Belgique.

References

In the course of 30 years of activity in Belgium, Cardionics benefited of relations with the scientist organisations of University Hospitals.

Particularly:

Our collaborations concerned:

In France :

We have taken part in all Congresses (organized in France) of quantitative electrocardiography in which vectocardiography by computer took a first choice place.

Thanks to Cardionics S.A., many French university centers have benefited from vecto systems on PC and of Median beats. All the CHU (University Hospital Centers) Aix en Provence - Grenoble - Lille - Lyon – Marseille - Montpellier - Nancy - Paris - Rennes - Strasbourg – Tours are our scientists’ partners since 1985 with a congress every two years (lately: the 2001 congress in Monaco).

Thanks to this scientific recognition and the development of the CarTouch’s, we have started to work in the pharmacological studies sector.

We hope to keep growing in our ECG activity sector making deep developments of our products (hardware and software) and thanks to efficient partners, we intend to put our enthusiasm and experience at the service of new applications.

Recent Evolution

After the take over of CIG and Cardionics by the American company CSC, the board of directors has negotiated an MBO (Management By Out) of Cardionics by BG Invest in 1992.

Since then, the hardware and software’s evolution has accelerated.

Hardware acquisition of ECG 15 derivations

Cardionics S.A. develops then:

a) An acquisition circuit which, installed in the PC, allows transforming the computer into an ECG device with memory. This evolution interests private cardiologists, hospital centers and preventive medicine centers (in France).

b) A CarTouch device has been realized in 2001 to allow an autonomy quality acquisition, the ECG memorization and the communication (Telemedicine).

c) The CardioPlug launched in 2002 records the ECG in a mode enslaved to the PC and gives access to the PC and Network’s performances.

Analysis Software

1991-1994 New ECG 15 derivations analysis program

Thanks to the performances of the PCs, Cardionics S.A. has created a new ECG 15 simultaneous derivations interpretation program (instead of 3 previously) using the Car Touch and Cardio Plug devices.

Dr LI GAO PING has collaborated for 4 years’ with Cardionics S.A. and has obtained a Doctorate in Medical Computer.

Dr Li remains our scientist correspondent in Shangaï .

This new version has been introduced at the “XXI e International Congress on Electrocardiography” in Yokohama on July 1994. An article about our new program appeared in the “Japanese Heart Journal” (vol 35 supplement 1994).

1993-1994 Late potentials detection program

In the same field of activity, Cardionics S.A. has developed a program of ventricular late potential detection. This third software as the ECG program and the effort ECG uses the same 15 derivations ECG analysis device (CarTouch and CardioPlug) created by Cardionics S.A.

1998- Development of ECG software on PC – ECG Effort program under Windows.

QT Interval analysis for Clinical Research

Communication Software – ECG Networks

In parallel to the ECG signal, Cardionics S.A. has realized indispensable software for the setting of the ECG in hospital network and the transfer of ECG to validation centers.

Scientific collaboration

A permanent scientific collaboration is in place with 2 experts cardiologists from Paris for our ECG systems’ evolution and our analysis program.

Quality Management System

Cardionics S.A. , hoping to maintain his quality image, and recognised for more than 35 years, sets a quality management system. This system allowed Cardionics S.A. to obtain in 1997 the ISO 9002 / EN 46002, in 2002 the ISO 9001 / EN 46001 and in 2006 the ISO 9001:2000 / ISO 13485:2003 certifications. Cardionics S.A. also obtained the CE mark for his products, the agreement of the FDA, the certifications for Canada and China.

The quality management system is annually checked by a notified Body.

Escrow Service

« Escrow » is an English legal term meaning : “securing something by calling in an independent third party”.

As software producer, Cardionics offers to its clients the possibility to give the source code for a program to an Escrow Agent for safekeeping.

By its cooperation with the company Merak Escrow, Cardionics S.A. extends more trust and confidence to its customers and sees its source codes kept perfectly secure under all circumstances.

The Escrow Agent provides for expert legal guidance, and for the optimum storage of the source codes and updates, and for any necessary deliveries, which are only established contractually.

The Escrow Agent is an advantageous formula for improving risk management and ensuring company continuity for both parties.