New Zealand (Commonwealth Union)_ A heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI) occurs when insufficient oxygen-rich blood reaches the heart, lowering its oxygen supply. This occurs when one or more of the arteries delivering blood to the heart get blocked, typically owing to a clot, or when the need for oxygen-rich blood exceeds the supply. Doctors can identify whether a patient has suffered a heart attack using numerous blood tests. If a physician believes that a patient has suffered a heart attack, they would normally get a blood sample and analyze it for cardiac markers that may suggest a heart attack.
New Zealand hospitals are now using a revolutionary, world-first bedside test capable of diagnosing heart attacks in minutes rather than hours. The research for the single blood test, which would expedite the treatment of patients and save millions for the creaking health care system, was undertaken by emergency physicians at Christchurch Hospital. Health Minister Andrew Little, who watched the bedside blood test in operation, described it as revolutionary.
During the official launch of the new test at Waipapa, Christchurch Hospital, Little stated, “Clearly, this is good for patients – those who can go home instead of spending hours in hospital worrying they are having heart attacks, and those who actually are having heart attacks and get the treatment they need sooner”. According to Little, it is also beneficial for the health system. Moreover, sending patients home within an hour of their arrival relieves hospital pressure and frees up an emergency department bed for someone else.
It was claimed that the high-precision bedside blood test is as accurate as a laboratory test. The bedside test analyzes a protein in the blood that is secreted by injured heart muscles during a heart attack. Hence, doctors can determine within eight minutes whether a patient presenting with chest discomfort is experiencing a heart attack. The study team, headed by Dr. Martin Than, has spent nearly a decade developing improved methods for identifying heart attacks. Their innovative techniques also earned them a prestigious global healthcare award in 2020, and they are now being implemented in hospitals throughout the country. The new test has also reduced the average length of stay for cardiac patients in the emergency department by three hours and saved the health system around $50 million to $70 million.
According to Than, chest discomfort and signs of a suspected heart attack are among the most prevalent reasons for visiting emergency hospitals. Than stated, “And as you know, emergency departments at the moment are very busy and overcrowded. At any one point in time, up to a quarter of our beds might be occupied with patients we are examining for heart attack, and that involves a test […] which can take, sometimes one to two hours to come back”. He added, “We will be the first place in the world to use a seven-and-a-half minute test in the ED, with the same precision as the main test that we have in the laboratory.”
The Government Health Research Council granted $1.15 million to the iCare-Faster project (Improving Care by Faster Risk-Stratification in the Emergency Department) in 2019. But the research was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the emergency department at Christchurch Hospital is now the first in the world to implement a rapid, high-precision bedside troponin blood test. And beginning in February, ten other hospitals will launch the test in their hospitals. The hospitals are: Whangrei, North Shore, Waitakere, Waikato, Rotorua, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Nelson, and Timaru.
According to Little, if effective, this technology will provide enormous benefits for all New Zealanders across the country. He further added that the reforms made to the health system, including the consolidation of 20 district health boards into a single organization, make it easier to spread excellent techniques like this to the rest of the country, including rural areas where the possibility to receive treatment close to home will be of great benefit.
