May 07, 2021
The implementation of a smartphone-based application to aid with communication about STEMI patients coming in from the field has enabled one large health system to drop its EMS-to-balloon time by 10 minutes, according to a new study.
“With this device you can send text, pictures, video, vitals, and it not only goes to the ED but a whole system,” senior researcher Amir Lofti, MD (Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA), told TCTMD. “All that information is communicated to a group of people that is preselected and therefore everybody is on the same page. Everybody knows there s a patient coming, you have real-time GPS location so they know exactly how far the patient is out, they know when the patient arrives from the rig, and we know their clinical status or if their clinical status changes. So we re all prepared for them in the ED and then the cath lab.”
New app enables faster treatment of patients suffering a heart attack
Patients suffering a heart attack received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure to clear blocked arteries in the heart, an average of 10 minutes faster after clinicians and paramedics began using an app to facilitate efficient hospital intakes for these patients, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology s 70
th Annual Scientific Session.
The study was conducted at Baystate Medical Center, a health system headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, that, like many U.S. hospitals, serves patients across a wide geographic area. Before adopting the app, clinicians typically only had about five minutes of advance notice when a heart attack patient was en route, even if the patient had traveled a long distance. The app allowed clinicians to begin coordinating with paramedics much earlier, helping teams prepare for rapid response upon arrival.
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Patients suffering a heart attack received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure to clear blocked arteries in the heart, an average of 10 minutes faster after clinicians and paramedics began using an app to facilitate efficient hospital intakes for these patients, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology s 70th Annual Scientific Session.
The study was conducted at Baystate Medical Center, a health system headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, that, like many U.S. hospitals, serves patients across a wide geographic area. Before adopting the app, clinicians typically only had about five minutes of advance notice when a heart attack patient was en route, even if the patient had traveled a long distance. The app allowed clinicians to begin coordinating with paramedics much earlier, helping teams prepare for rapid response upon arrival.