I've tried using discrete INS-amps but that din't go very far, my local parts distributor gave me the wrong IC, and on a student's budget, that's not good. I've ordered a Sparkfun Dev-Board for the AD8232 ECG front-end which should be here soon. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about ways to interpret the signal. I was thinking of using pulse-shape analysis (like in gamma spectrometry). An FPGA such as the Spartan 6 or the Zinq would have more than enough horsepower to do that... remains to be seen. Have to dig out the Mojo V3. Also, i need to select a Fast, 12-bit ADC to do the data acquisition from the Front-End. Everything has to be pretty low-power. Long battery life is still a necessity. This just happened. Analog Devices have a mix of ECG Front-end and ADC in one package. This sound like a way better solution. http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/ADAS1000-3_1000-4.pdf