Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, today announces that Western Maryland Regional Medical Center's recent upgrade to the newest version of IMPAX HeartStation ECG Management System has helped enable the rapid diagnosis and treatment of patients with posterior wall heart attacks. The Cumberland-based hospital is using the recently released features of IMPAX HeartStation to digitally review and archive 15-lead ECG studies.
Compared to more commonly found 12-lead ECG equipment, 15-lead ECG provides more complete data for detecting heart attacks in the right and posterior ventricle walls. IMPAX HeartStation's industry leading, innovative features analyze and prioritize 12- and 15-lead ECG exams as they come into the system and alert healthcare providers if a patient is experiencing a life-threatening or other critical condition.
"There's an adage when a patient is having a heart attack that 'time is muscle,' which refers to the importance of returning blood flow to the blocked area via angioplasty procedure as soon as possible," said Karen Stair, director of cardiovascular services for Western Maryland Regional Medical Center. "IMPAX HeartStation increases our clinical ability because it prioritizes and alerts emergency department doctors of critical ECGs."
IMPAX HeartStation uses Agfa HealthCare-developed technology that identifies specific words or phrases in the ECG interpretation statement. Any exam matching the configurable keywords is immediately prioritized to the top of the ECG worklist. A distinctive, noticeable watermark is digitally created on the ECG tracing to notify the physician of the criticality of the exam.
To maximize the benefit of the new IMPAX HeartStation technology, Western Maryland Regional Medical Center has adopted a new departmental workflow. For example, because IMPAX HeartStation allows ECGs to be emailed, hospital IT staff created a limited-access email account so that emergency room physicians can provide prompt access to critical ECGs to interventional cardiologists and electrophysiologists. This allows them to view ECGs and prescribe ER treatment from any location.
Western Maryland Regional Medical Center is a 275-bed facility that opened in Fall 2009. In addition to IMPAX HeartStation, the hospital uses Agfa HealthCare's cardiovascular image management and reporting solution, IMPAX Cardiovascular (IMPAX CV), to view, manage, and archive more than 25,000 cardiology studies a year, including cardiac catheterization imaging and echocardiography imaging and reporting.
IMPAX HeartStation is Agfa HealthCare's comprehensive data management solution for automating the processing and storage of electrocardiograms. Its new features, including support for 15-lead ECG, stress test and Holter monitor measurements, were introduced at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in March 2010. The system provides a single point of access to historical and current ECG exams, and improves physician access to ECG exams by providing the ability to display, review, edit, confirm, print, and archive ECGs throughout the secure hospital network, wherever it extends. IMPAX HeartStation integrates seamlessly with IMPAC CV.
"We at Agfa HealthCare are proud to contribute to the delivery of quality healthcare at facilities such as Western Maryland Regional Medical Center," said Michael Green, Vice President, Agfa HealthCare. "IMPAX HeartStation builds upon the foundation defined by IMPAX Cardiovascular: to provide easy-to-use tools that deliver timely, meaningful information to busy diagnosticians."
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