In a new study, researchers found that if multidisciplinary health care teams were involved in caring for patients, the chance of surviving heart attack complications is much higher.
For example, the chance of surviving the refractory cardiogenic shock, a severe condition that can occur after a heart attack can be increased by 50%.
The research was conducted by a team from the University of Utah Health.
Refractory cardiogenic shock occurs after the heart and circulatory system fail despite optimal medical management, resulting in a lack of blood to adequately fuel organs in the body.
To treat the life-threatening situation, it is important to connect these patients to a device that mechanically circulates the blood.
Despite the intervention, 40 to 50% die within 30 days.
In the study, the researchers examined 123 patients admitted between April 2015 and August 2018.
They assembled health care providers into a single Shock Team.
This Shock Team was comprised of a heart failure cardiologist, a cardiothoracic surgeon, an interventional cardiologist, and an intensive care unit physician.
Together they combine their expertise to make decisions regarding each patient’s treatment and care.
The researchers found patients seen by a multidisciplinary team had a 75% chance of survival at 30 days compared to a 50% survival rate for those treated before the new approach was implemented.
This suggests that taking a multidisciplinary method could provide a strong survival benefit compared to standard of care treatment.
The team explains that having a consensus medical decision while carefully discerning positives and negatives of each patient case from the point of view of all involved medical specialties is more likely to be appropriate compared to an individual physician’s decision.
The lead author of the study is Iosif Taleb, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow in cardiology at U of U Health.
The study is published in Circulation.
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