Bringing expert cardiovascular care within reach
Clinical networks, AI and data-driven decision-making could expand access to high-quality healthcare worldwide.
Where patients live should not determine the quality of cardiovascular care they receive. Yet geographic distance, limited resources and unequal access to specialized expertise continue to create disparities in patient outcomes.
Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and innovative clinical networks, offer new opportunities to close those gaps by bringing expert-level decision-making closer to patients, regardless of their location.
Translating those opportunities into practical, scalable solutions will be the focus Friday of the session “Reimagining Cardiovascular Care for Scalable Global Impact.” During the session, Derek P. Chew, MBBS, will explore strategies for expanding access to cardiovascular expertise in his presentation, “Bridging Innovation and Access: Implementing Scalable Cardiovascular Solutions Globally.”
Among the most promising approaches to mitigating disparity is leveraging established clinical networks to support time-critical decisions for patients in rural and remote communities, where specialized care may be difficult to access, said Chew, a professor and director of cardiovascular medicine at the Victorian Heart Hospital, director of health informatics research at the Monash Victorian Heart Institute and chief scientific and medical officer of the Heart Foundation of Australia.
Integrating machine learning into routine clinical workflows could further improve decision-making in these settings.
“Embedding these into electronic workflows will enable us to scale expert decision-making 24/7, regardless of geography,” he said.
Australia has a long history of developing clinical networks to support cardiovascular care across vast geographic distances. Chew said these networks provide a foundation for newer approaches that incorporate algorithms into routine clinical workflows, helping clinicians make informed decisions in settings where expert consultation may not be readily available.
Other initiatives are extending specialized decision-making into community settings, particularly general practice. Chew said these efforts are beginning to narrow gender-based differences in care.
But technology alone cannot eliminate disparities.
The challenges of geographic distance often are compounded by socioeconomic disadvantage, Chew said, creating additional obstacles to implementing innovative care models. Inadequate infrastructure, limited resources and insufficient funding can hinder the adoption of digital solutions, especially in under-resourced communities.
Persistent biases also threaten equitable care, especially for women, Indigenous populations and patients whose first language is not English, he said. Regulatory and funding barriers must also be addressed.
Overcoming all these challenges requires health systems to rethink how they allocate resources, especially specialized clinical expertise.
“Maintaining a focus on equity and affordability means that we need to be better at directing the scarce resource of expertise to where it is needed, rather than by supply alone,” Chew said.
A value-based approach that considers individual patient needs and the potential benefits of treatment could help health systems allocate resources more effectively. Although this requires sophisticated data systems and analytic capabilities, Chew said those capabilities continue to expand.
“A better personalized understanding of patients' needs and the opportunity to benefit from cardiovascular innovations will be critical in developing systems and infrastructure to be able to deliver healthcare more effectively,” he said.
Chew identified several opportunities to accelerate progress, including national data systems that can consistently integrate evidence-based insights into clinical practice.
“The data systems and analytic requirements of this are large, but the capabilities continue to expand, and I'm confident that we can achieve this through the stewardship of data systems and healthcare funding in Australia,” he said.
