RURAL Queenslanders are benefiting from research at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) that aims to improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosing patients with chest pain.
The latest diagnostic (IMPACT) allows doctors to quickly and safely identify three-quarters of all patients as low to intermediate risk, within two hours.
This dramatically reduces the length of stay in emergency for chest pain patients.
This diagnostic is now live in five hospitals – Cairns, Nambour, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Ipswich and RBWH with Townsville soon to also adopt – and has the potential to save the system $12.4 million a year.
An earlier diagnostic (ACRE) which allows clinicians to quickly identify low risk patients was rolled out to 16 Queensland hospitals between 2013 and 2015.
The research team has evaluated the roll out – which looked at almost 55,000 patients – and found it has already led to $13.5 million in annual economic savings for the healthcare system.
The research is being promoted by the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) which since 2008 has invested more than $1 million in acute cardiac research projects led by RBWH Emergency physician, Adjunct Professor Louise Cullen and Professor Will Parsonage (cardiologist and clinical director of the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology).
Queensland Health has invested a further $2 million in rolling out the two programs statewide.
Chest pain is the second most common complaint among patients presenting to emergency departments. However, only 15 percent of these patients are actually suffering from a heart attack or acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
Chest pain is the second most common complaint among patients presenting to emergency departments.
According to Professor Louise Cullen, these patients may undergo lengthy, intensive and costly assessments, which had traditionally taken between 12 and 24 hours.
“Until now, there has been little difference in assessment strategies and costs for the low and intermediate risk patients, resulting in the majority of patients experiencing prolonged hospital stays,” Professor Cullen said.
In 2016, the National Heart Foundation of Australia/Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand updated their Guidelines for the Management of ACS, to incorporate the ADAPT protocol.
The results of evaluating chest pain and heart attack risk in emergency departments (EDs) were also highlighted in two landmark research articles published in the current September issue of Medical Journal of Australia which can be viewed at www.mja.com.au.
EMERGENCY MEDICAL FOUNDATION DELIVERS SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS
THE Emergency Medicine Foundation was launched in 2007 after Queensland emergency medicine specialists successfully lobbied the Queensland Government for funding to establish a dedicated research program for emergency medicine.
EMF was intended to build the State’s emergency medicine research capability and allow clinicians to lead research projects to improve patient care.
The Queensland Government continues to fund EMF’s Queensland Research Program, which remains the only emergency medicine research fund of its kind in Australia, according to EMF Chair and RBWH Emergency and Trauma Centre Medical Director, Dr Anthony Bell.
“EMF is significant because we’re a young organisation, but the research projects we’ve funded are already generating clinically-relevant outcomes that Queensland and other Australian emergency departments are adopting,” said Dr Bell.
“Queensland research is delivering significant improvements in patient care, public health and the healthcare system.
“Considering EMF’s modest budget, our successes are testament to the power of funding quality research with the potential to drive clinical change. We are proud of our achievements and we now hope to establish similar research programs in other Australian States and Territories,” he said.
EMF also has a strong rural emergency medical focus. In 2014, the Foundation launched a Rural and Remote Research program with philanthropic and industry support.
The following year, EMF established a Research Support Network to foster emergency medicine research in regional and rural hospitals.
“Access to care in rural and remote areas is uniquely challenging in Australia. Delays in providing care can contribute to poor outcomes for ill and injured Australians, so EMF is hoping to make a difference and address these real and immediate challenges through targeted research,” Dr Bell said.