10/05/2006

Message:
This is a public announcement of an investigational trial of a new heart monitor system that will be used by emergency medical personnel on all individuals in Santa Cruz County who call “911.” The new heart monitor system will be able to transmit an individual’s electrocardiogram to the hospital via cellular telephone in the event the patient is experiencing chest pain. The study is called ST SMART which stands for “Synthesized Twelve-lead ST Monitoring And Real-time Tele-electrocardiography.”

The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health and sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco. This is a countywide project that includes both Dominican and Watsonville Hospitals in collaboration with Santa Cruz County Emergency Medical Services. Potential benefits of the research include earlier diagnosis of heart attack allowing Emergency Department physicians to see a patient’s electrocardiogram prior to arrival so that treatment may be ready once the patient reaches the hospital.

About 2,468 patients who call “911” for chest pain will be included in this 5 year study which is scheduled to begin June 23rd of this year. One-half of the patients will be automatically, randomly selected to have their electrocardiograms transmitted to the hospital by cell phone and the other half will receive routine emergency care according to current protocols. The investigators want to find out whether the group who has their electrocardiograms transmitted by cell phone will have a shorter time to treatment for heart attack and whether that results in better outcomes.

There is no added cost to the patient and no additional risk associated with the use of this investigational device. If you have any questions about the study, you can call the principal investigator, Dr. Barbara J. Drew at (415) 476-4302 or Elise Dempsey, RN, MS at Dominican Hospital at (831) 462-7897.