An electrocardiograph system including a monitoring device capable of receiving cardiac signals from electrodes attached to a patient in an alternative electrode configuration, wherein the alternative electrode configuration is one of a predetermined set of known electrode configurations that differs from a default configuration. The system further includes an analysis module configured to analyze the cardiac signals to detect that the electrodes are attached to the patient in an electrode configuration that differs from the default configuration, and then request information from the user identifying the alternative electrode configuration from the predetermined set of known electrode configurations. The analysis module retrieves a set of criteria for assessing the cardiac signals based on the alternative electrode configuration, and automatically analyzes the cardiac signals based on the set of criteria for the alternative electrode configuration.
