ADVANCED MEDICAL ELECTRONICS CORP — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase I: N

Description

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Heart disease is the leading cause of death among elderly American Indians and Alaska Natives Heart disease death rates for elderly American Indians at per are percent higher than average in the total U S population Most elderly Native Americans live in remote locations and lack transportation to healthcare facilities This is a key barrier that complicates healthcare access and prevents adequate long term monitoring of coronary artery diseases CAD Access to a facility that can perform a cardiac stress test is particularly difficult The elderly patient often has to travel several hour for such testing because the small clinics located on a reservation are typically staffed by a doctor and a small number of technicians Often these small clinics do not have a staff member with the training experience and procedural skills to administer a cardiac stress test Cardiac testin has been used in clinical practice for many years and its use has contributed significantly to the management of many patients In its current form clinical exercise testing consists of the continuous monitoring of an ECG lead system with frequent recordings of lead tracings Additional tracings are taken according to clinical circumstances Frequent blood pressure determinations are made before during and after exercise of progressively increasing intensity usually with a treadmill to any of a number of test end points This project proposes to develop a telemedicine system that will allow a reservation clinic staff member to administer a cardiac stress test under the interactive supervision of a person experienced in cardiac stress testing protocols Preliminary data will be collected on acceptance usability and utility of the proposed Telemedicine Cardiac Stress Test System through focus groups The focus groups will consist of Native American patients primary care physicians nurses on a reservation and personnel responsible for performing cardiac stress tests Human trials with American Indians living on reservations will be completed in Phase II PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and is a major cause of disability Heart disease represents almost percent of all U S deaths American Indians and Alaska Natives die from heart disease at a younger age than other racial and ethnic groups in the Unites States Prior to the andapos s coronary artery disease was relatively uncommon among Native Americans Over the past few decades changes in diet economics and lifestyle have resulted in marked increases in the rates of obesity diabetes high blood pressure and kidney failure all of which increase rates of coronary artery disease heart attacks and cardiac deaths