Study: Faster heart attack care has not led to better in-hospital survival.

USA Today (9/4, Szabo, 5.82M) reports that research published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that while hospitals have “shaved 16 minutes off the time it takes to get heart attack patients into treatment from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009, reducing that time from 83 minutes to 67 minutes,” investigators “found that the percentage of heart attack patients who die while in the hospital, about 5%, hasn’t changed.” The researchers only looked at patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarctions.

        The Los Angeles Times (9/5, Brown, 3.4M) reports that approximately ten years ago, “the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Assn. began instituting guidelines to help hospitals reduce their so-called door-to-balloon times to 90 minutes or less.” The ACC released “a statement Wednesday stressing that it stood by its guidelines and pointing out that ‘short-term mortality is not the only goal of door-to-balloon.’”

        Bloomberg News (9/5, Cortez, 1.41M) reports that in the statement, ACC President John Harold said, “We are also interested in recovery and quality of life after a heart attack.” Dr. Harold added, “Time is muscle, and the sooner treatment begins, the less muscle is damaged, which preserves functionality of the heart.”

        However, on its website, NBC News (9/5, Aleccia, 6.68M) reports that according to study leader Dr. Daniel Menees, “We’ve probably had an overemphasis on D2B time,.” Dr. Menees added “Clearly, it’s important to reevaluate it and reconsider.”

        Forbes (9/5, 5.76M) contributor Larry Husten writes that “in an accompanying editorial, Eric Bates and Alice Jacobs write that ‘the primary opportunity for reducing total ischemic time and time to treatment, and for improving outcomes, now lies in the prehospital STEMI system of care, where logistic challenges remain…. Although door-to-balloon time remains important, it’s time to turn our attention to the further development of systems that address the continuum of STEMI care, from symptom onset through return to the community.’” Also covering the story are HealthDay (9/5, Gordon, 2K) and MedPage Today (9/5, Smith, 185K).