Researchers from Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have created an app that can help emergency department personnel effectively evaluate chest pain patients and determine which ones can be safely discharged.
The app, HEART Pathway, has been tested in a clinical trail published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. The trial found chest pain patients who were evaluated with the app had 12 percent fewer cardiac tests, 21 percent more early discharges and shorter hospital stays than chest pain patients who received standard care.
HEART Pathway is based on clinically validated protocols developed at Wake Forest Baptist. "The HEART Pathway app is the manifestation of our validated patient protocol in digital form," said Simon Mahler, MD, the study's lead author. "This gives emergency department providers an easy way to apply an already proven method for evaluating patients who present with chest pain in a way that reduces length of stay and unnecessary testing."
The app is available for purchase in the Apple Store and can be integrated with EHRs like Epic.