This mobile app helps to recognise heart attack symptoms
Scientists have developed an app that uses a simulated digital nurse to teach patients how to recognise symptoms of heart attack and call emergency. Patients using the SAVE app are more likely to call an ambulance when they had symptoms, and had fewer hospital admissions, researchers said. “Most deaths from heart attacks occur within the first few hours of symptom onset,” said Jintana Tongpeth, a PhD student at Flinders University in Australia. “The death rate can be halved by getting patients to hospital more quickly. Delays occur mainly because patients don’t recognise symptoms or know to call an ambulance,” said Tongpeth. An avatar is a simulated digital character that interacts by talking, and using facial expressions and body language.
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The SAVE app uses an avatar, a nurse named Cora, to teach heart attack warning signs and symptoms, and what to do when they occur. The app has four sections heart attack warning sign quiz; heart attack signs and symptoms, showing which symptoms are more common in men versus women; what to do when having a heart attack; heart attack warning signs test.
During the initial development phase, a pilot study in ten heart attack survivors found that using the app improved symptom recognition and knowledge about what to do. These results became the preliminary data for a larger, statistically powered randomised controlled trial. Today researchers present results of this first randomised controlled trial testing the impact of using the app on knowledge and response to heart attack symptoms.
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