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Virtual cardiac hospital

26 February 2009

South Australia has its first virtual cardiac hospital for heart patients living in rural and remote areas.

The Integrated Cardiovascular Clinical Network (iCCnet SA) has established a Centre for Excellence in rural cardiovascular care at Naracoorte Hospital.

Clinical Director of iCCnet SA Dr Phil Tideman has spent the past eight years developing the network in response to alarming statistics that show higher rates of cardiac deaths in rural areas.

"With the wide ranging demands on country practitioners, you couldn't expect them to automatically acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in what has been a rapidly changing field over the past two decades," Dr Tideman says.

"Increasing the knowledge base in rural hospitals, providing the necessary clinical tools and giving doctors and nurses immediate access to cardiologists was the obvious solution."

Minister for Health John Hill, who launched the facility, says: "We hope that lives can be saved with this technology, which creates the ability to share knowledge and information between specialists in city and rural areas, 24 hours a day."

Part of the system is an internet-based database that gives rural medical staff online access to cardiologists 24 hours a day, 7 days a week..

Local hospital staff can use the secure online system to share ECGs (electrocardiograms) and other vital patient data in 'real time' with other members of the health care team, particularly the on-call cardiologist, regardless of where they may be located.

iCCnetSA is unique in Australia, and now serves all 66 rural hospitals in South Australia.

The $1.12 million funding (over three years) comes from the South Australian Government.

Donors  include; the Australian Hotels Association, Internode, Syslinx, local service clubs and the Flinders Medical Centre Foundation. The Naracoorte Hospital base is also supported by private donations from Charles and Julie Koch.