A probably lifesaving new smartphone app might help folks decide if they’re struggling coronary heart assaults or strokes and will search medical consideration, a medical examine suggests.
The ECHAS app (Emergency Name for Coronary heart Assault and Stroke) is being developed by specialists at UVA Well being, Harvard, Northeastern and different main establishments. It’s designed to assist folks acknowledge the indicators of cardiac and neurological emergencies in order that they get care as rapidly as attainable, for the very best outcomes.
Put to the take a look at in an preliminary medical examine with greater than 200 real-life emergency-room sufferers, the app proved efficient at figuring out folks struggling strokes or coronary heart assaults. It had a “excessive sensitivity” the researchers report, for detecting individuals who wanted emergency care and was rated “extremely usable,” suggesting it may very well be a straightforward and efficient useful resource for folks untrained to acknowledge the indicators of a probably devastating well being emergency.
“Coronary heart assault and stroke are two main causes of demise in Virginia and the U.S. Our examine discovered that the ECHAS app may precisely establish sufferers with coronary heart assault, stroke and different emergency mind or coronary heart issues who wanted analysis within the emergency room or admission to the hospital,” stated UVA Well being neurologist Jonathan R. Crowe, MD, MPH, one of many examine’s authors.
“We hope ECHAS may assist save lives by lowering delay and serving to sufferers get the center assault and stroke care they want.”
In the case of strokes and coronary heart assaults, time is of the essence. Medical doctors take into account the primary 60 minutes after a stroke or coronary heart assault the “golden hour” as a result of that’s when medical therapies are the simplest.
Ready can have grave, long-term penalties—greater than half of stroke deaths, for instance, happen earlier than sufferers even attain the hospital. And those that do survive may be left with life-changing disabilities. But many individuals hesitate to hunt care as a result of they’re unsure in the event that they’re actually struggling a medical emergency.
That is the place ECHAS would are available. The app is predicated on the identical questions docs ask when sufferers arrive on the emergency room; it additionally features a finger-tapping take a look at that may detect weak spot on one aspect of the physique. After customers full their digital examination, the app calculates a danger rating and advises whether or not to name 911, name a medical hotline or contact their physician or different care supplier.
Within the app’s preliminary medical trial, 202 emergency room sufferers had been requested to make use of the app after they’d been seen and stabilized. Of those sufferers, 57 had been struggling stroke signs and 145 had been struggling coronary heart assault signs. The typical age of the contributors was 62; most had been white and 126 had been males.
The app proved 100% efficient at figuring out sufferers who would in the end be admitted to the hospital after their emergency analysis. The app was additionally quick, detecting strokes in lower than two minutes and coronary heart assaults in just one.
“In coronary heart assault and stroke care, time could make the distinction between life and demise,” stated Crowe, who can also be a part of the College of Virginia College of Drugs’s Division of Public Well being Sciences. “We want options like ECHAS which might be correct, quick and simple to make use of.”
The app just isn’t but accessible, and the researchers say additional testing in bigger trials is required. However they’re happy in regards to the promise their app has displayed in its first test-run.
“At UVA, we’ve partnered with UVA’s Middle for Telehealth to use for a grant to review ECHAS right here in Virginia,” Crowe stated. “We would like folks in Virginia and world wide to have the ability to use their smartphones and tablets to cut back delay and assist them get the care they want, particularly in medical emergencies.”
The researchers have printed their findings within the scientific journal JMIR Formative Analysis. The group consisted of Amar Dhand, Rama Mangipudi, Anubodh S. Varshney, Crowe, Andria L Ford, Nancy Okay. Sweitzer, Min Shin, Samuel Tate, Haissam Haddad, Michael E. Kelly, James Muller and Jay S. Shavadia.
Extra info:
Amar Dhand et al, Evaluation of the Sensitivity of a Smartphone App to Help Sufferers within the Identification of Stroke and Myocardial Infarction: Cross-Sectional Examine, JMIR Formative Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.2196/60465
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Smartphone app that detects coronary heart assault and stroke discovered efficient in medical trial (2025, Could 22)
retrieved 22 Could 2025
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