Digital Journal — It’s one of the most problematic medical questions: How do you identify a heart attack when chest pain accounts for the majority of hospital visits?
If an international group of researchers had their way, technology would be the answer. The consortium, led by the University of Edinburgh, has created a program that lets doctors swiftly assess the severity of a patient’s condition. This new “risk calculator” is already being used in British hospitals.
At a patient’s bedside, doctors take key data such as age, medical history and blood pressure, then input statistics into specially-devised software. The patient profile is matched with data taken from thousands of other coronary causes. The computer will not only offer an accurate assessment of the patient’s condition, but also recommend treatment.
Professor Keith Fox of the University of Edinburgh said in a statement, “Identifying those with threatened heart attack from the very many patients with chest pain is a real clinical challenge, but critically important in guiding emergency and subsequent patient care.”
Dubbed the GRACE calculator — standing for Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events — this assessment tool could be taken a step further. While it’s intrinsically integral to find out what a patient is experiencing, it would also be helpful to collect data on the treatment given and the subsequent result. By adding that element to evidence-gathering health care, doctors can then learn what treatment to avoid so there’d be no tragic complications.
Without a doubt, the GRACE calculator deserves the attention of the entire medical community, from North America to Africa. The next step is to implement the system and the software into every hospital possible. Heart attacks may be unavoidable, but it helps to predict when chest pain can turn deadly.
