News | Computed Tomography (CT) | June 20, 2019

New Type of Cardiac Care to Cut Imaging Wait Times and Unnecessary Hospital Admissions

Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic will feature dedicated cardiac CT scanner, freeing up general-purpose scanners in emergency departments

New Type of Cardiac Care to Cut Imaging Wait Times and Unnecessary Hospital Admissions

June 20, 2019 — A new type of care for cardiac patients at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, has the potential to reduce heart imaging wait times, ease emergency department congestion and lower the number of unnecessary hospital admissions. At the center of the new approach is a GE Healthcare Cardiographe dedicated cardiac computed tomography (CT) scanner, the first of its kind in Canada. The machine will be used as a component of a stand-alone Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic that will provide earlier prevention and life-saving treatment to cardiac patients.

“The Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic has the potential to change the course of this disease by offering prevention and early intervention in a personalized fashion,” said Jonathon Leipsic, M.D., chair of Providence Health Care’s (PHC) Department of Radiology. It is partnering with St. Paul’s Cardiology Department in this initiative with funding from St. Paul’s Foundation.

The clinic would open in 2020 and will receive referrals from St. Paul’s Emergency Department, the City Centre Urgent Primary Care Clinic (UPCC) in Vancouver’s West End and from general practitioners. It will be staffed with specially trained cardiac CT technicians and nurses.

The dedicated cardiac CT is currently at St. Paul’s where scans are performed on about 25 patients a day, freeing up time on the hospital’s other general purpose CT scanners for other patients.

The cardiac scanner is smaller, easier to use and lighter than full-body scanners because it diagnoses only the heart. It also offers:

  • Sharper, crisper images that can provide greater direction on the next step of care; and

  • Similar or lower radiation doses than general-purpose scanners.

Patients who would be diagnosed with the cardiac scanner will be stable and have symptoms that include chest pain, shortness of breath and fatigue. Patients with valve disease will also benefit.

The concept of a rapid access chest pain clinic, supported by cardiac CT scanning, was inspired by the United Kingdom, where this model has proven highly effective. It is allowed for a more specific diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

The St. Paul’s model will help provide earlier diagnosis to patients who might otherwise end up in the ED due to referral wait times by specialists.

“If the cardiac CT scan is negative, it means the patient has an excellent prognosis with a very low cardiac-event rate for many years,” said Leipsic.

The chest pain clinic will have the capacity to care for about 2,500 cardiac patients a year.

St. Paul’s Foundation is in the process of raising $800,000 for the model of care. It has raised $500,000 of that so far.

For more information: www.providencehealthcare.org

 

Related Content

VIDEO: Walk Around of a GE Cardiographe Dedicated Cardiac CT Scanner

VIDEO: The Essentials of CT Transcatheter Valve Imaging

VIDEO: What to Look for in CT Structural Heart Planning Software


Related Content

News | Cardiac Imaging

February 8, 2023 — Carestream Health is partnering with Robarts Research Institute to increase and demonstrate the ...

Home February 08, 2023
Home
Videos | Cardiac Imaging

Artificial intelligence and general consolidation were two top cardiology trends at RSNA22. ITN/DAIC spoke with Val ...

Home January 23, 2023
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

January 13, 2023 — Nuclear stress testing performed with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is the most ...

Home January 13, 2023
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

November 29, 2022 — Researchers have developed a deep learning model that uses a single chest X-ray to predict the 10 ...

Home November 29, 2022
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

November 28, 2022 – UltraSight, an Israeli-based digital health pioneer transforming cardiac imaging through the power ...

Home November 28, 2022
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

November 28, 2022 — Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., a leader in medical diagnostic imaging and healthcare ...

Home November 28, 2022
Home
Feature | Cardiac Imaging

Discover the key features of cardiovascular structured reporting that drive adoption, including automated data flow, EHR ...

Home November 07, 2022
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

October 18, 2022 — HeartFlow, Inc., a leader in revolutionizing precision heart care, has received U.S. Food and Drug ...

Home October 18, 2022
Home
Webinar | Cardiac Imaging

The direct impact of COVID-19 is substantial. The resulting impact of the pandemic has forced healthcare organizations ...

Home October 17, 2022
Home
News | Cardiac Imaging

October 11, 2022 — Researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School found that patients with certain features ...

Home October 11, 2022
Home
Subscribe Now