Department of Computer Science, Thunghai University, Taichung, 40704, Taiwan.
Taichung Veteran General Hospital, Taichung, 40705, Taiwan.
J Med Syst. 2018 Jan 17;42(3):39. doi: 10.1007/s10916-018-0892-y.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) as one of the best methods to measure irregular heartbeats is a dispensable method for doctor to diagnose Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients. Most medical centers in Taiwan implement the reduction of Door to Balloon (D2B) time, which is defined as the time interval starting when an Acute-Myocardial-Infarction patient arrives at the Emergency Department, and ending when a catheter guide wire crosses the culprit lesion as the acute-myocardial-infarction treatment on the patient in the cardiac catheterization room. Generally, when a patient with acute-chest pain is sent into a hospital (always to Emergency Department), the hospital will collect his/her ECG which needs to be evaluated by a cardiologist to ensure that the patient really has Acute Myocardial Infarction. Then the medical workers deliver the patient to the cardiac catheterization room to operate balloon angioplasty. In previous years, the cardiologist must utilize a PC to connect to the Intranet of the hospital and employ a special PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) image browser before he/she can check the patient's ECG. But this will prolong the D2B time since the doctor may stay outdoors and he/she needs some time to find a PC and network. Of course, if the PC has not installed the PACS image browser, the doctor has to download and install it. Consequently, the D2B time should be worsened, thus possibly impacting the patient's life. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a Cloud-based Electrocardiogram System, with which cardiologists can directly utilize their smart phones to browse the patient's ECG so as to shorten the D2B time. This system has been online in a medical center in middle Taiwan for more than one year. The shortened D2B time is longer than 10 min, i.e., receiving fine results.
心电图（ECG）是测量心律失常的最佳方法之一，对于医生诊断急性心肌梗死（AMI）患者来说是一种不可或缺的方法。台湾的大多数医疗中心都实施了缩短门球时间（D2B）的措施，门球时间定义为急性心肌梗死患者到达急诊部的时间与导管导丝穿过罪犯病变的时间之间的时间间隔，作为对心脏导管室患者的急性心肌梗死治疗。一般来说，当急性胸痛患者被送往医院（总是去急诊部）时，医院会收集他/她的心电图，需要由心脏病专家进行评估，以确保患者确实患有急性心肌梗死。然后，医务人员将患者送往心脏导管室进行球囊血管成形术。在过去的几年中，心脏病专家必须使用 PC 连接到医院的内部网，并使用特殊的 PACS（图像存档和通信系统）图像浏览器来检查患者的心电图。但是，这会延长 D2B 时间，因为医生可能在户外，他/她需要一些时间来找到 PC 和网络。当然，如果 PC 没有安装 PACS 图像浏览器，医生必须下载并安装它。因此，D2B 时间应该会恶化，从而可能影响患者的生命。因此，在本文中，我们介绍了一种基于云的心电图系统，心脏病专家可以直接使用智能手机浏览患者的心电图，从而缩短 D2B 时间。该系统已经在台湾中部的一家医疗中心上线一年多了。缩短的 D2B 时间超过 10 分钟，即取得了良好的效果。
