Date and Time
January 21, 2004
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Robert F. DeBusk

The Acute Care Management for Coronary Artery Disease is a 5-year project designed to develop and test the effectiveness of a new system of followup care for patients with established CAD who have been treated in emergency rooms or hospitals for possible acute coronary artery syndrome (ACS). The Care Management System (CMS) is designed to facilitate patient access to medical care and streamline the care process itself. The proposed project integrates patient-related and system-related initiatives. The research question is whether the CMS fosters patients prompt initiation of a call for help in the event of recurrent symptoms and enables a more effective and efficient response by the health care system to such symptoms, including effective triage of patients to the appropriate level of care. The policy of referring all patients with symptoms of a possible ACS to the emergency room doubtless decreases patient delay, but it also results in the ER referral of many patients whose care could be more effectively coordinated by telephone. The proposed project provides a framework for managing the entire population of CAD patients experiencing chest pain, including patients who do not presently seek ER care.