What is Willem Einthoven known for?
I am best known for inventing the string galvanometer, an instrument so sensitive it could detect the faint electrical currents produced by the human heart. This allowed me to record the first practical electrocardiogram, or ECG, which I described in my 1903 paper 'The String Galvanometer and the Measurement of the Human Electrocardiogram.' The device used a thin quartz fiber coated with silver, suspended in a magnetic field; when the heart's electrical currents passed through it, the fiber deflected, and I could photograph those deflections. This gave us a precise, quantitative record of cardiac electrical activity—what I called the 'electrocardiogram.' For this work, I received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924. The ECG remains the cornerstone of modern cardiology, allowing physicians to diagnose arrhythmias, ischemia, and other heart conditions noninvasively.
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