Follow up visits to a cardiologist after a heart attack are crucial for the long-term care of heart patients.
However, you may be surprised to learn that clinicians currently do not have easy access to a patient’s medication list, diagnostics and a record of doctor visits.
This means cardiologist appointments are often pre-occupied with clarifying the patient’s medication list or medical history, instead of focusing on the conversation, the diagnosis and the plan.
To help address this issue, Adelaide cardiologist Associate Professor Johan Verjans is creating a real-time dashboard that uses data from the Medicare Benefit Scheme (MBS) to pick up on tests the patient has had, and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to record the patient’s medications.
And now, thanks to your support, Australian Heart Research is proud to be providing a $125,000 grant to A/Prof Verjans to further develop the dashboard.
“The dashboard aims to monitor and predict cardiovascular patient outcomes, providing clinicians with vital data between visits,” A/Prof Verjans said.
“We aim to develop an affordable, nationally scalable clinical tool that enables real-time monitoring of patient data, giving insights about what has happened between visits that can inform a change of plan or medication.”
The dashboard will also help determine the impact of early intervention for patients who are at risk, incompliant, or did not have a regular check-up – all identified by algorithms.
A/Prof Verjan’s team will also use the dashboard to help predict future heart events after a heart attack, by utilising machine learning on a vast database. This feature will empower clinicians to intervene proactively in high-risk patients, and provide personalised care based on each patient’s risk profile.
Eventually a trial will be conducted using an existing health monitoring system, where clinicians can collate and act on real-time patient data after an acute coronary event.
“If successful, we will apply for funding for a prospective clinical trial with an intervention, using doctor alerts, and pursue scaling the concept throughout Australia,” A/Prof Verjans said.
“This project is unique in that it can be scaled up statewide and nationally, and importantly, could expand to heart failure or any other diseases, with minor modifications.”
We look forward to keeping you updated!
