Chennai: For all the spectacular advances in cardiology, heart surgeons will still tell you that nothing determines the treatment outcome for a heart attack patient as much as the maxim “time is muscle”. In other words, survival rates of a heart attack are decided by how quickly a patient reaches a cardiac care hospital to arrest the extent of heart muscle damage.
This year, STEMI-India looks to build on the lessons from a pilot programme launched at Coimbatore, over a year ago, and add capacity to its hub-and-spoke model of integrated emergency care for heart attack patients.The pilot project at the Kovai Medical Centre Hospital on 84 patients involved public education, training doctors and support staff in advanced STEMI (ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction) management and developing linkages with ambulance service providers. |
