Bluetooth could save Utahns' lives

Several Salt Lake County fire departments will soon have Bluetooth technology that allows emergency medical technicians to transmit EKG data directly from ambulance to hospital, allowing faster diagnosis of heart attacks.

The $133,000 in funding for the devices will come from IASIS Healthcare, Intermountain Healthcare, MountainStar Healthcare and University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics, who collaborated to provide the money for agencies who need the equipment and haven't had the funds to purchase it. Fire departments benefitting from the donation include Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake and West Valley City. Once the technology is fully implemented, the effort is projected to save 25-30 lives annually.

With Bluetooth technology, detailed heart data gathered by the EKG is immediately transmitted to the hospital, where an emergency department physician reads it. When a heart attack is confirmed, the hospital's cardiac catheterization team is activated and patients are more quickly taken to the hospital's cath lab. A potentially lifesaving balloon is inflated in the blocked artery that is causing the patient's heart attack, which re-establishes blood flow and reduces damage to the cardiac muscle.