Doctors push for heart-attack drugs in rural areas, to be prescribed by doctors reading remote data

Doctors at West Virginia's Charleston Area Medical Center want to make "clot-busting" heart attack drugs available in rural areas. These doctors "want to establish a network of sites, most likely community health centers, where clot-busting drugs would be available for rural West Virginians who suffer a specific type of heart attack called a segment-elevation myocardial infarction, or STEMI," writes Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette.

"The clot busters, called thrombolytics, dissolve clots and restore blood flow to the heart," adds Eyre. Thrombolytics can be administered within the first few hours of a heart attack can prevent much heart damage. In rural settings, the drug could be administered after a doctor at CAMC or another remote facility reviews a transmitted electrocardiogram to prove the victim is indeed having a heart attack. (Read more)