LIFENET® RS works in concert with Medtronic's LIFEPAK® 12 defibrillator/ monitors to provide high-quality diagnostic information from the field (pre-hospital setting) to the Emergency Treatment Center.

"This new technology will help us save even more lives," said Neal Weintraub, M.D., director of UI Heart and Vascular Center. "By receiving high quality 12-lead ECG tracings directly from paramedics in the field, we will be able to make more rapid and accurate decisions about how to treat patients with suspected heart attacks. In addition, we will be able to assist health care professionals in communities around the state to make the best treatment decisions for their cardiac patients."

"This is another example of how the close partnership between UI Heart and Vascular Center and the Emergency Treatment Center can improve care for cardiac patients," said Eric Dickson, M.D., F.A.A.E.M., Director of UI Hospitals and Clinics Emergency Treatment Center and the Emergency Medicine Program at the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

When using LIFENET RS, paramedics on the scene transmit the 12-lead ECG (electrocardiogram) information via a cell phone signal. Emergency physicians and cardiologists at the Emergency Treatment Center can diagnose a heart problem before the ambulance crew brings the patient to the hospital.

By using LIFENET RS, the Emergency Treatment Center staff will know if it should mobilize the cardiac catheterization lab team or recommend thrombolytic (clot-dissolving) medications to treat the patient. The length of time required to begin thrombolytic therapy treatment can be reduced to 30 minutes after the patient enters the emergency department, compared to 50 minutes if ECG data is not received in the emergency department until after patients arrive.

Medtronic's Emergency Response Systems business unit pioneered defibrillation technology 50 years ago. With more than 500,000 LIFEPAK defibrillators distributed worldwide, Medtronic is the world's leading provider of external defibrillators for the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest.

For more information:

Medtronic

UI Heart and Vascular Center

Emergency Treatment Center

Eric Dickson, M.D., F.A.A.E.M.