WHAT: The American Heart Association (AHA), along with the Duke Clinical Research Institute, will gather emergency medical services, cardiology, emergency medicine and hospitals administration in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, October 5 for the Regional Systems of Care Demonstration Project – Mission: Lifeline^® STEMI Systems Accelerator program.

The program is designed to get medical professionals to work closer together to reduce the amount of time between heart attack and treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Kentucky has the second highest death rate in the United States from the deadliest type of heart attack – a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

The vision of the American Heart Association is that 100% of the population in Kentucky will have access to high-functioning and high-quality systems of care to treat STEMIs.

WHERE: Louisville Marriott East

                 1903 Embassy Square Boulevard

                       Louisville, KY 40299

WHEN: Friday, October 5, 2012

                    8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

WHY: A patient experiencing a STEMI heart attack has less than two hours to receive treatment or they are likely to experience significant heart damage, cardiac arrest and death. In Kentucky, the average for receiving this treatment ranges from three to four hours – significantly longer compared to the rest of the United States.

The current system of care is not performing optimally and subsequently only 60% of STEMI patients in Kentucky receive American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guideline recommendation.

To improve the timeliness and quality of care and outcomes for STEMI patients in Kentucky it will necessitate a highly developed and coordinated system of care because of issues like access and geography.  The approach of creating specialized systems of care for treating victims of trauma and, more recently, stroke has been shown to improvement clinical outcomes.

The public, emergency medical services and medical professionals in hospitals know exactly what to do for a severe car accident, for example, because a system is in place for trauma.  The AHA wants a similar experience for treating victims of heart attack.

For more information, visit heart.org/MissionLifeline.