Having a heart attack is bad news, but if you live in metro Atlanta, there's also some good news. Thanks to the Atlanta TIME (Timely Intervention for Myocardial Emergencies) Project, you're likely to get the treatment you need faster.

"We say that time is muscle [meaning heart muscle]," said Dr. Eric Ossman, EMS medical director at Grady Health System. "The whole point of the project is to reduce the interval between when someone starts experiencing chest pains or other symptoms and when they receive medical intervention. The less time it takes, the less damage to the muscle."

Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special (ENLARGE)

Grady Health System paramedic Dawn Brand demonstrates how 12-lead electrocardiographic units transmit data from ambulances to hospitals, as part of the Atlanta TIME Project.

(ENLARGE)

Atlanta TIME is a unique cooperative venture among five Atlanta hospitals with cardiac catheterization centers — Atlanta Medical Center, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Emory University Hospital, Piedmont Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital — and four EMS systems operating in Fulton County: Grady EMS, Rural Metro EMS, the Hapeville Fire Department and Atlanta Fire Department ECHO units at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

All ambulances that respond to 911 calls in Fulton County are equipped with 12-lead electrocardiographic (EKG) units and the ability to transmit the results immediately to one of the five hospitals with receiving units.

"We have had 12-lead EKG units on ambulances for 10 to 15 years, but what is new is the cellphone technology that lets us transmit the data to the appropriate emergency department, where a physician can read it," said Matt Robinson, EMT-P, EMS coordinator at Grady Health System.

Robinson has helped train paramedics on the equipment and in the new protocols, so they can read EKG patterns. They can then determine whether to send the data to the nearest hospital that can respond to cardiac emergencies.

"Now we can be confident that we are transporting the patient to the right hospital," Robinson said. "It's much better for them to be taken to a facility with the resources to treat them immediately, instead of having to be diagnosed and transferred somewhere else. During delays, the heart tissue is still dying."

Because they can receive patients' diagnoses from ambulances, hospital employees have a head start in calling interventional cardiologists and staff and in preparing the catheterization lab. Upon arrival, the patient can be rushed for an angioplasty.

"Thanks to Atlanta TIME, patients can be in surgery an average of 10 to 15 minutes earlier, and that can improve patient outcomes," Ossman said.

"Although all hospitals work on shortening the time of arrival (until) opening the artery, the TIME program concentrates on shortening the time from the onset of symptoms to stopping the attack with angioplasty," said Dr. Spencer King, chairman of interventional cardiology at the Fuqua Heart Center of Atlanta at Piedmont Hospital, and co-director of the Atlanta TIME Project.

Ossman thinks the program is a great example of a community-wide initiative that makes a difference, and he is proud to be part of it.

"I think a lot of cities will be moving in this direction — that having 12-lead EKG and transmitting technology between ambulances and hospitals will become a standard in urban health care," he said.