Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Get With the Guidelines, Hernandez highlighted in Wall Street Journal

An increasing number of U.S. hospitals are joining the Get With the Guidelines program, and several recent studies have indicated that hospitals that participate in the program are improving their outcomes for heart attack and stroke patients.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the impact the GWTG program is having and the goal for the program to help improve care and prevent further hospitalizations for cardiac patients. The DCRI's Eric Peterson, MD, and Adrian Hernandez, MD, lead the GWTG Data Analytical Center, and Duke Medical Center is one of the centers that participate in the program.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and medical costs associated with treating it are estimated to reach $475 billion each year in the U.S. alone. The American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines program was launched in 2000 as a way to improve hospital adherence to evidence-based guidelines. Approximately 1,600 hospitals in the U.S. have joined the GWTG program, which is roughly one third of all hospitals and medical centers in the country.

“The program serves as an example in which clinical care feeds research and then research findings can be translated into care for our patients,” said Hernandez.

Guidelines can range from advising patients with heart failure to quit smoking to recommendations to treat certain stroke patients with drugs to break up blood clots within the first three hours. The AHA strongly recommends that physicians follow the evidence-based guidelines for treating stroke, and patients with heart failure and coronary artery disease. Hospitals participating in the GWTG program can choose one or more of those efforts that they will follow.

Click here to read the full article.