This paper presents a novel electrocardiogram (ECG) processing technique for joint data compression and QRS detection in a wireless wearable sensor. The proposed algorithm is aimed at lowering the average complexity per task by sharing the computational load among multiple essential signal-processing tasks needed for wearable devices. The compression algorithm, which is based on an adaptive linear data prediction scheme, achieves a lossless bit compression ratio of 2.286x. The QRS detection algorithm achieves a sensitivity (Se) of 99.64% and positive prediction (+P) of 99.81% when tested with the MIT/BIH Arrhythmia database. Lower overall complexity and good performance renders the proposed technique suitable for wearable/ambulatory ECG devices.