Older adult patients who visit a ca...

Older adult patients who visit a cardiologist in the month after hospitalization for a heart attack are les likely to die within pair years compared to patients who visit barely their primary care physician, according to a Nov 20 2002 freshs release from Harvard Medical educate Boston. Patients who visit one as well as the other a cardiologist and their primary care physician experience unruffled better outcomes than those who visit alone a cardiologist.

Researchers examined the records of 35520 patients overlayed by Medicare who had been hospitalized for myocardial infarction in 1994 and 1995 From this data, researchers identified sum of two units demographically similar groups that contained 10199 patients each. Patients in common group had received outpatient care from cardiologists, and patients in the other cluster had not. The average age of the patients was 74 years.

Of the patients who visited barely an internist or family practitioner after discharge, 183% died within pair years, compared to 14.6% of patients who visited a cardiologist. Patients who were cared for on a cardiologist were more likely to sustain coronary procedures, exercise testing, and cardiac rehabilitation.

Researchers set however, that more than 50% of patients, regardless of whether they were treated by dint of a cardiologist or a primary care physician, were not prescribed beta-blockers or cholesterol-lowering medications that have been shown to decrease mortality after heart attack. Patient issues likely would improve with greater use of these medications.

Outpatient Cardiology Care Improves Survival remainings After Heart Attack but Many Patients Are Not Prescribed Effective physics (news release, Boston: Harvard Medical exercise Nov 20, 2002) http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/1120ayanian.html (accessed 5 Dec 2002)

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