On-line integration and analysis of cardiological data to support medical decision making

A web application was built to support cardiologist's medical decision-making. Main components are: 1. a 3D-dynamic virtual heart, integrating the single patient's cardiac and coronary abnormalities. 2. Estimation of patient's outcome on the basis of historical data analysis on the sub-population/s with the closest similarity to the patient's risk profile. 3. Same derived from published clinical controlled trials. 4 External web links to international guidelines, risk charts and epidemiological surveys. Each patient is characterized by over one-hundred parameters belonging to anamnesis, test results, final diagnosis, therapy and follow-up. Historical data were retrieved from the Institute's cardiology database containing more than 11.000 patients hospitalized in the last 30 years and systematically followed up for 10 years- and were graphically rendered. Cardiologists have expressed appreciation toward the project as it gives easy access to a wide range of data, precious for medical decision-making and important for research protocols and clinical and administrative patient management. © 2004 IEEE.