Digitalizing Cardiac Arrest

EMRA*Cast Host Shreyans Sanghvi, DO, takes us on an innovative journey with Andrew Chu, MD, PGY4 at Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency and fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital's Healthcare Transformation Lab, and Leland Perice, MD, Ultrasound Fellow at Maimonides Medical Center. Their first experiences with patient codes catalyzed their drive to explore the intersection of healthcare and digital innovation. In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, they embarked on a journey to create a digitalized treatment algorithm. Brandishing a Silicon Valley approach to mastering cardiac arrest management, Dr. Chu and MGH's Jared Conley, MD, PhD, MPH, created the MGH ACLS. 

OVERVIEW

The World Health Organization's recently published study, in conjunction with the United Nations, estimates that the COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in an excess mortality of 3,000,000 lives in 2020 alone. While vaccines have largely reduced the mortality associated with the novel virus, hundreds of thousands of physicians around the world continue to wage war daily against this unruly plague in the trenches of overcrowded and understaffed ICUs, emergency departments, and step-down units. With a blossoming pandemic stressing an already precariously designed healthcare system, how do physicians ensure each patient gets the same standard of care in a resource-poor environment?

Andrew Chu, MD, and Leland Perice, MD, discuss the lessons they've learned pioneering the design and execution of a digitalized cardiac arrest treatment algorithm alongside experts in the field of resuscitation science and medicine. Dr. Chu and Jared Conley, MD, PhD, MPH, are co-creators of the co-creators of MGH ACLS

MGH's Healthcare Transformation Lab: The Healthcare Transformation Lab's founding mission is to improve the experience and value of healthcare through collaborative innovation. Located in Boston, a hub of leading teaching hospitals, academia, technology, and startups, the HTL sits within the Massachusetts General Hospital and works to connect, inspire, and support passionate people from diverse backgrounds as they collaborate on ways to improve healthcare.

Dr. Chu and Dr. Perice reflect on what it takes to venture into the digital health and innovation space.

References

1. World Health Organization. The true death toll of COVID-19: Estimating global excess mortality. May 2021. Available at: https://www.who.int/data/stories/the-true-death-toll-of-covid-19-estimating-global-excess-mortality.
2. Healthcare Transformation Lab. The Healthcare Transformation Lab at Mass General: Great ideas to improve healthcare are everywhere. We help make them real. Available at: https://healthcaretransformation.org/.