Medtronic's Lifenet System: Using smartphones to treat heart attacks

To help heart attack treatment

Smartphones are rapidly become the device of choice for almost every situation, whether it be business, shopping or entertainment. However, a hospital in California has now implemented a system that uses high tech phones to shave minutes off the time it takes for doctors to respond to heart attack victims.

The El Camino Hopsital has developed the Medtronic's Lifenet System, which wirelessly transmits a patient's electrocardiogram (ECG) information from the ambulance back to the facility's Emergency Department so doctors can see the patient's progress in real-time. The information can then be transmitted to a cardiologist's email account or smartphone, allowing the medical professional to interpret the results as fast as possible and ensure the necessary action is taken.

It has the potential to shave life-saving minutes off treatments, especially if the patient is suffering from an "ST elevation myocardial infarction" (STEMI). The Lifenet System would allow for preparations to be made at the catheterization lab before the patient even arrives, allowing for a speedier treatment.

The El Camino Hospital has even theorized that the system could reduce the D2B (door-to-balloon) time - the time it takes to get a patient from the emergency room to the interventional lab for treatment - by several minutes.

Race against time

Speaking to Healthcare IT News.com, Chad Rammohan, MD, interventional cardiologist and medical director of El Camino Hospital's Chest Pain Center said, "Lifenet can let us know as quickly as possible when a patient needs blood flow restored to the heart muscle.

"When it comes to heart attacks, the time it takes to restore blood flow is directly related to how patients do."

The American Heart Association estimates that currently nearly 400,000 people suffer from a STEMI heart attack in the United States each year, and recommends that D2B times for treating them be no greater than 90 minutes.
If the Lifenet System is adequately installed, it could be crucial in preventing the number of deaths each year.

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