Tuesday, 24 January 2012
ABM cardiac patients now have quicker and easier access to specialist tests which look at the blood flow in their heart. For the first time in Wales, a Clinical Scientist has been trained to carry out the tests, which are usually done by Consultants.
Rachel Bidder, a Clinical Scientist at ABM University Health Board’s Department of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering, will now help ABM provide a faster, more responsive and efficient service for imaging patients’ hearts.Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) - also called stress testing - provides key information about blood flow within the muscle of the heart.
Some cardiac disorders like myocardial ischaemia (angina) and myocardial infarction (heart attack) are known to be associated with low blood flow. MPI is used in both diagnosing and localising these disorders and deciding whether further treatment is necessary.
However, because these tests involve stressing the patient and injecting radiations at peak stress, only specially trained staff can carry them out; and until now this has been by Consultants.
Dr Martyn Heatley, ABM Associate Specialist in General Medicine and Cardiology, who is in charge of ABM’s myocardial perfusion service said:
“Rachel has been very focused and worked hard to get this qualification. It means that the Nuclear Medicine service at Singleton Hospital, containing an already highly experienced and qualified group of people, is now able to provide a faster, more responsive and efficient service for imaging the heart.
“This should result in patients being diagnosed faster and then receiving treatment, getting their operation or reassurance in a more appropriate time schedule than has occurred to date. She will also be able to help in the training of cardiology specialist registrars when they learn this technique.”
Rachel, who was awarded a certificate of competence in cardiac stress testing for MPI, by the European Association of Nuclear medicine, is the first person in Wales from a non-medical profession to achieve this clinical competency.
Dr Parvaiz Ali, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Nuclear Medicine said:
“I am absolutely delighted with this development. Until now, these tests could only be carried out by a Consultant Cardiologist or Consultant Radiologist. With Rachel now trained to carry out stress tests, the Cardiologist is able to spend their time reporting the scans.
“This not only makes substantial cost savings but also makes the entire service much more efficient. Furthermore, Rachel is one of a very few Clinical Scientists in the UK and certainly the first in Wales who is now carrying out stress tests on patients.”
The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) reported in 2003 that not enough MPI tests were being carried out in the UK, which not only increased risks to patients, but also cost the NHS more through the overuse of more expensive procedures.
NICE recommended that the number of procedures performed should increase more than three-fold and waiting times reduce from six months to a few weeks.
The biggest hurdle in meeting these targets has been the availability of properly trained staff to perform stress testing.
External staff from cardiology traditionally perform exercise stress electrocardiograms (ECGs). However these staff don’t have the training that is specific to MPI nuclear cardiology stress testing, which typically involves radioactivity. As a result these tests can be difficult to schedule.
The Department of Nuclear Medicine at Singleton Hospital performs approximately 450 myocardial perfusions scans per year and is the most experienced department in Wales
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