New System Cuts Delay in Heart Patients

Dr. Ibrahim Fahdi, a cardiologist at the University of Arkansas For Medical Sciences, center, holds a handheld wireless device that is receiving heart monitor data from mock patient Dr. Darapan Bansal, a cardiologist at UAMS, front, during a news conference, Wednesday Dec. 13, 2006, in Little Rock, Ark. The wireless system dubbed CALL or Cardiac Action Life Link, unveiled Wednesday, will transmit heart monitor data from an ambulance directly to the cardiologist on call to reduce the time to treat a heart attack patient. (AP Photo/Mike Wintroath) (Mike Wintroath - AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- If time spent transporting a suspected heart attack victim to a hospital could be used to work out a diagnosis and treatment plan, doctors say, more lives could be saved _ and now that will be possible in central Arkansas.

Those first minutes after a heart attack are crucial to survival: The longer a person's heart suffers from a lack of blood flow, the more heart muscle dies and the lower the chances that a patient will live through the attack. But even after a patient arrives at a hospital, more time can tick away as doctors diagnose and employees prepare for procedures.

"There's no way we can get the treatment in less than 90 minutes as recommended by standards," said Dr. Ibrahim Fahdi, a cardiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

But now a new system will allow paramedics in the field to send a recording of a patients' heart rhythms by cellular phone to portable devices held by waiting cardiologists.

The system, coming in to use in other cities in the nation, is being pioneered in Arkansas by UAMS, the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services.

Using the system, MEMS paramedics, who serve about half a million people across central Arkansas, would treat suspected heart attacks using new heart monitors. A series of 12 sensors is attached to a person's body, and a monitor records the electrical pulses of the heart.

Through an attached cell phone, the monitor places a minute and a half call to transmit the heart rhythm. The information passes along to a hand-held electronic device for a waiting cardiologist or doctor at UAMS or the Veterans Healthcare System.

From the data received, a doctor makes a diagnosis. For some patients, that means saving as much as 25 minutes in time. That also allows staffers to prepare to insert a catheter into a clogged artery to enlarge it and allow restoration of blood to the heart.

"Those physicians and the cardiologists will have the ability to look at the EKG before even the patient hits the emergency room," Fahdi said.

Fahdi has ridden with MEMS paramedics testing the cell transmissions of the device. The cell phone itself operates on Verizon Wireless' standard commercial network, said Robert Franke, a business sales manager with the company in Little Rock.

So far, Fahdi said the tests have been successful. At a demonstration Wednesday morning, MEMS executive director Jon Swanson said a clinical test of the new equipment would last up to 90 days. From there, officials would decide whether to suggest expanding the program to other Little Rock hospitals and the rest of the state.

But the program isn't cheap. Franke said Verizon had spent thousands of dollars in equipment and airtime for it. Swanson said MEMS will spend $600,000 to outfit its ambulances with 42 new heart monitors.

Across the nation, other cities like Houston, Texas, have begun using some form of the technology, said Bob O'Connor, a volunteer with the American Heart Association and a Delaware emergency room doctor with Christiana Care Health System. But the practice is not widespread.

"That's a very state of the art program," O'Connor said. "It's not unique, but it's on the cutting edge of technology."