Invention:
This technology is a clinical decision support system that can help to increase the awareness of the appropriate physician. This innovation can swiftly evaluate whether a patient’s heart rate is beating at an arrhythmic interval. This new clinical decision support system will be able to diminish the risk of sudden death due to inpatient cardiac arrests.
Doctors may prescribe drugs to patients for the treatment of Torsades de Pointes, which can be diagnosed based on an arrhythmia in the QT interval on the ECG readout. Many medications can increase the risk of such an arrhythmia by negatively impact the heart, and this tool can help doctors be more aware of how medications are directly affecting patients.
Background:
When cardiac arrest occurs, it can lead to limited oxygen reaching the body and brain and cause the patient to lose consciousness. The patient’s organs may begin shutting down and result in irreversible damage. There are over 100,000 cardiac arrests in America alone, and about 6% of them are due to Torsades de Pointes (TdP). Currently very few clinical decision support systems are available for cardiac arrests; however, TdP can be diagnosed based on the QT interval of the ECG. The decision support systems currently on the market may factor in a patient’s medications and their impact on the heart, but they do not incorporate the ECG heart readout.
This technology is able to incorporate a QT score to appropriately analyze the risk of a drug to the patient’s heart health and present the physician with other options for their patient. A cardiac arrest has immediate repercussions and can even result in permanent damage to a critical organ if it persists for enough time, meaning there is limited clinical decision making that occurs at this stage. By using this new software, physicians will be alerted when ordering a drug with a calculated negative impact on the QT score.
Applications:
- Clinical decision support for Torsades de Pointes
- Early detection
Advantages:
- Accurate
- Analyzes QT interval
