Study shows that the death rate among serious cardiac patients actually drops when cardiologists aren’t around
Study shows that the death rate among serious cardiac patients actually drops when cardiologists aren’t around
Study shows that the death rate among serious cardiac patients actually drops when cardiologists aren’t around. In India, a good heart surgeon is worth his or her weight in gold. Some of them even attain God-like status in society with patients and families vouching for their ability to bring you back from the brink of death.
So here’s news for you. According to newscientist.com, you have a higher chance to survive a serious heart attack if you reach a hospital and there’s no cardiologist to attend to you. Harvard Medical School healthcare policy researcher Anupam Jena and colleagues examined tens of thousands of people who were admitted to hospital with a heart attack, heart failure or cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2011, states newscientist.com.
Among the most severe cases of cardiac arrest, 70 per cent of those admitted when no cardiology conference (meaning that the doctor would have been away) was taking place died within 30 days. But among those admitted when expert cardiologists were away at meetings, the corresponding death rate was 60 per cent.
The results suggest that for the most seriously ill heart patients, the risks of emergency interventions such as artery widening may outweigh the benefits, Jena says.
The findings should not lead to a change in doctors’ practice without further research, but should be seen more as a warning signal that very ill people sometimes receive too many interventions.
“All patients are not the same: the risk that they can tolerate is very different,” he says. “In some cases that might mean we have to treat patients more conservatively.”
