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Thanks to a new system, specialists at St. Pat’s Hospital in Missoula will soon be able to exchange information with other doctors and review a rural patient’s tests

"Now your EKG can travel with you. Even if you’re hunting in Dillon," says Dr. Mark Sanz of new technology at St Patrick Hospital that allows instant access to a patient’s previous electrocardiogram from one hospital to another.

The Polson woman was experiencing chest pains for the second time in a week. An electrocardiogram showed something was wrong.

She was transported by Life Flight to Missoula, where Dr. Mark Sanz of St. Patrick Hospital eventually concluded the abnormalities revealed by the EKG related to the previous incident.

In other words, she wasn’t having another heart attack.
In a few months doctors in both Polson and Missoula – and several other western Montana communities – will have instant access to patients’ previous EKGs. Had they had the access in the case of the Polson woman, there would have been no need for a Life Flight ride. The EKG she’d had earlier in Missoula could have been compared to the EKG done in Polson.

"An EKG is a $50 test that can trigger a huge series of events," Sanz said before St. Patrick announced it has obtained over $1 million to fund the Montana Cardiac Telemedicine Network.

By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/01/29/news/local/news02.txt

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