AbstractEvaluating geographic access to cardiac catheterization in CanadaTrack: Health and Human Services Author This project seeks to improve care for patients experiencing acute myocardial infarctions (AMI: heart attacks) by determining geographic areas and populations with access to percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) within clinical time constraints (60-minutes). ArcGIS 9.2 was used to estimate pre-hospital times by ground to PCI facilities across Canada. Travel along the road network was evaluated and time to dispatch, time to patient and time at patient scene were considered in the overall access times. The effect of adding hypothetical new PCI facilities on timely population access was examined. Only a small proportion of Canada's geographic surface area is accessible to PCI facilities within this timeframe. Despite this, Canada's adult population distribution (=40 years) is such that 63.9% of the population can access PCI within 60 minutes. The proportion with such access varies widely across provinces. Such information can be used to inform the development of regionalized AMI care models. Alka Patel University of Calgary, Department of Community Health Sciences Health Sciences Centre 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1 Canada Phone: 403-608-7920 E-mail: alpatel@ucalgary.ca Jack Tu ICES G1 06, 2075 Bayview Avenue Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5 Canada Phone: 416-480-4700 E-mail: tu@ices.on.ca Stéphane Rinfret Laval University 2325, rue de l'Université Québec, Québec G1V 0A6 Canada Phone: 418 656-2131 E-mail: stephane.rinfret@criucpq.ulaval.ca Dennis Ko ICES G1 06, 2075 Bayview Avenue Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5 Canada Phone: 416-480-6100 E-mail: dennis.ko@ices.on.ca Nigel Waters George Mason University 4400 University Drive, MS 6C3 Fairfax, Virginia 22030-4444 United States Phone: (703) 993-4687 E-mail: nwaters@gmu.edu Mark Eisenberg McGill University Health Center Jewish General Hospital/McGill University 3755 Ch de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine Suite A-118 Montréal, Québec H3T 1E2 Canada Phone: 514-340-8222 E-mail: mark.eisenberg@mcgill.ca Thao Huynh McGill University Health Center 2155 Guy Street, 5th Floor Montréal, Québec H3H 2R9 Canada Phone: 514-934-1934 E-mail: thao.huynhthanh@mail.mcgill.ca Merril Knudtson University of Calgary 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1 Canada Phone: 403.944.3282 E-mail: mlknudts@ucalgary.ca William Ghali University of Calgary 3330 Hospital Drive NW Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N1 Canada Phone: 403-210-9317 E-mail: wghali@ucalgary.ca |