Transforming diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary embolism

Given the range of symptoms that present when a patient has a sudden blockage of one or more pulmonary arteries, quickly diagnosing and treating pulmonary embolism (PE) continues to be a challenge. But new ways of organizing teams – and connecting them through technology – promise hope.

Challenges of managing acute PE

Despite new diagnostic tools and treatment options, PE care often lacks definitive guidelines. Physicians treating acute PE can face difficult management decisions, and therefore refer the patient to multiple specialties – critical care, cardiology, pulmonology, hematology, interventional radiology, and/or vascular surgery. But serial consultations with specialists can delay treatment and makes it hard to reach clear consensus on the treatment plan.

Bringing specialists together

Hospitals have created successful rapid response teams to manage diseases with high mortality and morbidity like myocardial infarction and stroke. These teams help streamline and expedite diagnosis and treatment, thereby improving patient outcomes.

PE, which is the third leading cause of cardiovascular death worldwide after myocardial infarction and stroke, could also benefit from a similar response team. Creating multispecialty care teams for PE would help develop protocols, streamline PE care, and improve patient outcomes. It would also mean no more time-consuming serial consultations.

Tools to assist communication and collaboration

PE management spans many specialties and involves specialists in diverse disciplines. One of the difficulties in bringing different specialists together is the logistics, given busy work schedules and varying work hours.

Specialists who are part of PE care teams must be quickly activated and aligned to coordinate care. Therefore, they must be able to access patient information, share their expertise and communicate with other team members from anywhere.

RapidAI has created a solution that enables specialists to easily access patient information via a mobile or desktop app and streamline team communication to save precious time and facilitate efficient collaboration. This solution helps the team to quickly arrive at a treatment plan for PE patients.

Simplifying PE care coordination. Technology that enables PE care team members to access patient information from anywhere and streamline team communication can help expedite PE diagnosis and treatment.

Check out how you can streamline PE care coordination using RapidAI.