We are making great strides to treat heart attack patients as quickly as possible
In 2005, only about 50% of patients arriving at the hospital with an acute heart attack had their artery opened by angioplasty in less than 90 minutes.
In 2006, the ACC founded the Door-2-Balloon Alliance. This natioanl D2B alliance specific aim was to help improve hospitals performance. I'm proud to have been a part of this seminal work, under the leadership of Dr Harlan Krumholz at Yale. The alliance provided hospitals with tools and suggestions to improve its performance.
In a recent article in JACC, researchers found that "by spring of 2008, 76 percent of patients" received treatment within the recommended time.
Meanwhile, "more recent data shows continued improvement. Nearly 82 percent of eligible patients had a 90-minute or less door-to-balloon time in those hospitals by last summer."
This is amazing and should begin to lower MI mortality even lower.
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