Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of heart disease, killing more than 370,000 people annually. (1) Patients with chest pain or symptoms of acute ischemic cardiac disease require rapid assessment and treatment. Involving an experienced cardiologist as soon as possible to assess ECG findings can determine if intervention is necessary and, if so, reduce the time to intervene. This, in turn, can lower morbidity and mortality. In short: saving time saves heart muscle.

Access to the ECG and continuous rhythm strip is typically limited to those who are present at the patient’s bedside. This can lead to unnecessary cath lab activations, which cost money and employee time. Unnecessary activation carries high unreimbursed costs in the U.S. (1) Although hospitals often target an over-activation rate of eight to14 percent, many report actual rates as high as 60 percent. (2),(3)

Some current workflow practices are used frequently to address existing workflow inefficiencies, despite the fact that these practices are clear HIPAA violations - such as sending a non-encrypted photo of the ECG from one provider to another.

AirStrip provides live ECG access on mobile devices, laptops and desktops. Putting the right data in the right hands at the right time allows the entire clinical care team - including cardiologists and the on-call STEMI team - to have the same access to vital patient information, regardless of location, to support faster, more informed decision-making.