New Zealand develops globalfirst rapid heart-attack test
Research for the single blood test, which will see patients treated quicker and save the creaking health system millions, was led by emergency doctors at Christchurch Hospital.
Auckland: A breakthrough global-first bedside test that can diagnose heart attacks in minutes instead of hours is being rolled out across New Zealand hospitals.
Research for the single blood test, which will see patients treated quicker and save the creaking health system millions, was led by emergency doctors at Christchurch Hospital.
‘Groundbreaking’
It was hailed today as “groundbreaking” by Health Minister Andrew Little who witnessed the bedside blood test in action.
“Clearly, this is good for patients – those who can go home instead of spending hours in hospital worrying they are having heart attacks, and those who actually are having heart attacks and get the treatment they need sooner,” Little said during the new test’s official launch at Waipapa, Christchurch Hospital.
The “high-precision” bedside blood test is said to be as precise as a laboratory test.
Doctors can tell within eight
minutes whether a person turning up at ED with chest pain is having a heart attack.
“But it’s also good for the health system,” Little said.
“Sending people home within an hour of arrival takes pressure off the hospital and frees an ED bed up for someone else.”
The research team, led by Dr Martin Than, has been working for a decade on finding better ways of diagnosing heart attacks.
Their methods won a prestigious global healthcare award in 2020 and are now being used in other hospitals across the country, where they have reduced the median stay of cardiac patients in ED by three hours and saved the health system an estimated $50 million to $70 million.