Cardiology  

Cardioscan reduces unnecessary cardiac referrals by primary care physicians

13 Oct 2006

Princeton, USA. The Zargis Cardioscan can reduce rates of unnecessary referrals by primary care physicians by an average of 41%, according to an assessment conducted in association with The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Zargis Medical Corp., a spin-off from Siemens Corporate Research (NYSE: SI) and a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus Corp. (Nasdaq: SPDE), announced the summary results of the clinical study, conducted in 2005, at the recent American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta.

The study assessed the impact of the Cardioscan system on referral decisions made by primary care physicians regarding heart murmurs — which are potential signs of heart disease. The study measured the accuracy of a group of primary care physicians in evaluating a set of 100 recorded heart sounds. The heart sounds were independently evaluated by each physician both with and without access to Cardioscan's reported findings. With Cardioscan's findings, the physicians were able to reduce their rates of unnecessary referrals by an average of 41%. This indicates Cardioscan's potential to generate a large reduction in wasted healthcare spending.

The study also revealed a reduction in the physicians' false negative
rates by an average of 46%, suggesting that Cardioscan could increase a physician's ability to identify those pathological heart conditions that are difficult to detect with a standard stethoscope.

"In addition to the medical benefits that would result from improving
the diagnostic accuracy of heart sound evaluation, strong financial
incentives exist as well. We estimate that more than 3 million U.S.
patients are unnecessarily referred each year for an echocardiogram or to a heart specialist for evaluation of innocent heart murmurs. Based on the  results of this study, we are confident that Cardioscan can contribute to a significant reduction in this unnecessary healthcare spending while dramatically improving a physician's ability to detect potentially pathological heart murmurs," stated Zargis CEO John Kallassy.

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