A £15,000 pilot project in Devon means patients with suspected heart defects are being saved huge amounts of time and inconvenience during medical tests —thanks to a small medical device.
And more than half of the patients were shown not to need referral to hospital, a study of the project has confirmed.
The small medical machine — known as an ambulatory cardiac monitor — is given to patients with potential heart problems so they can monitor their own heart rhythms while going about their everyday life.
Okehampton family doctor Paul Nielson explained: 'We give patients with suspected heart problems a cardiac monitor, which they wear, attached to a belt, for example for about two weeks.
'The crucial thing is that the patient can record any pain or discomfort in their heart by pressing a button on their monitor.
'At the end of the test period, the monitor comes back to the surgery and we transmit the information by telephone line to specialists at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital at Wonford.
'Transmissions are analysed by trained cardiac technicians the same day and referred to a consultant cardiologist if necessary, before being immediately reported back to the family doctor by fax, and confirmed by post.'
Before the trial started, potential heart problem patients were referred to a consultant cardiologist at the RD&E, and might wait several months to be seen.
The consultant would probably order electro-cardiograph (ECG) monitoring, during which the patient would be attached to a heart-monitoring machine for 24 hours to check for abnormalities. Staff would then have to analyse a high speed recording of the monitoring and send the results back to the patient's own doctor.
'Apart from this being inconvenient and time consuming for the patient, it was sometimes a fruitless exercise because the patient might not have any heart problems during the 24-hour period. The portable monitors solve all those issues,' said Dr Nielson.
An audit of the project has confirmed that 55% of the patients in mid Devon who would in the past have been referred to a cardiologist, would not have needed an appointment.