"Reaching Hospital ASAP Critical": AIIMS Doctor On New Heart Attack Study
NDTV
Similar studies have been conducted in the past, but they were hospital-based, he said. "This is the first study where we went into the community."
Only a small proportion of patients (10 per cent) with cardiac and stroke emergencies reach health facilities within an hour, which is critical in preventing death, a recent Indian study has shown. The sooner such patients reach a hospital, the better the result of their treatment.
The study, conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and published in the top medical journal The Lancet, sought to address the reasons for delays at multiple levels in reaching the facilities.
"We conducted a social audit of people who died due to heart attacks or strokes in the Ballabgarh block of Haryana's Faridabad," Anand Krishnan, Professor, Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS, told NDTV, adding that they wanted to understand if patients reached a hospital in time, what problems they face in accessing urgent care, and what were the reasons for the delay in reaching hospitals.
The study, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, was done by three departments of AIIMS -- Cardiology, Neurology, and community medicine.
