Use of Mobile Devices, Social Media, and Crowdsourcing as Digital Strategies to Improve Emergency Cardiovascular Care
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and stroke affect millions of people in the United States annually.1 Despite significant advances in medical treatments for these conditions, they remain a major public health problem and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.1 A critical common element in optimizing care and outcomes for these conditions is the timely recognition of symptoms and initiation of treatment.For example, rapid initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is associated with improved survival from cardiac arrest. 2 Similarly, early recognition and presentation after onset of symptoms of AMI and ischemic stroke enable implementation of critical therapies such as primary angioplasty and thrombolysis, which are known to improve outcomes.1 Indeed, the "Chain of Survival" for emergency cardiovascular and cerebrovascular care (ECCC) starts with prompt identification of the condition and early activation of the healthcare system to rapidly initiate care.3 Unfortunately, despite national efforts that include public education initiatives and clinical practice guideline recommendations from entities such as the American Heart Association (AHA), major gaps remain in the timely identification of symptoms and initiation of ECCC.[4][5][6] As one example, studies of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have consistently noted delays in the initiation of bystander CPR.7 For AMI, there have been advances in the provision of timely primary angioplasty for STsegment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), as reflected by significant improvements in door-to-balloon times.8 However, the time from patient symptom onset to seeking care for possible myocardial infarction has not improved significantly.9,10 Similarly, for stroke, there continue to be advances in door-to-needle times, but stroke symptom recognition and seeking of treatment by patients and their families remain a major barrier to timely stroke care.[11][12][13][14][15][16] Public and clinician education efforts alone are not sufficient to reduce gaps and unnecessary variation in time, which suggests a need for new strategies to address this challenge.One promising area to improve ECCC is the use of digital tools and digital strategies such as mobile devices, social media, and crowdsourcing.The AHA has identified digital strategies as an important factor to help achieve the 2020 goals of improved cardiovascular health.Other organizations are also supporting study in this area through requests for applications and funding opportunities.[17][18][19] The Institute of Medicine report entitled "Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act" also recommends accelerating "research on the evaluation and adoption of cardiac arrest therapies" and specifically calls for health services research related to "the use of innovative technologies (e.g., mobile and social media strategies…)."20 To date, however, there has been limited rigorous research and implementation of such strategies to improve ECCC and patient outcomes.The broad public availability and utilization of digital platforms suggests an important opportunity to leverage digital strategies to improve ECCC and patient outcomes through more timely recognition and treatment.Social media has more than a billion users who share information, including posts, status updates, and Use of Mobile Devices, Social Media, and Crowdsourcing as Digital Strategies to Improve Emergency Cardiovascular Care A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association
Source: Circulation
Institution: Guizhou University
Language: English
Subfield: Emergency Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2460387869