On Friday, April 24, Sonja Postma (working as a project coordinator at Diagram) will be awarded a PhD by Radboud University Nijmegen for her dissertation entitled “Pre-hospital triage and risk assessment in STEMI patients”.
Sonja Postma investigated the triage (assessment of the urgency of a patient’s request for help) and treatment of patients with a heart attack before arriving at the hospital. In addition, she looked at the characteristics of the heart film to improve the risk assessment of patients with a heart attack. Postma notes that direct transport by ambulance to a dotter hospital gives better results compared to indirect transport via a non-dotter hospital. At the same time, she concludes that living at a distant hospital does not necessarily lead to poorer outcomes. For patients at high risk it is of great importance that the time between the first medical contact and the dotter treatment is minimized. The administration of a high dose of clopidogrel in the ambulance appears to lead to a net clinical effect. Grade 3 ischemia is a serious distortion of the so-called QRS complex, which can be seen on the heart film. Patients with this distortion have a greater risk of death.
The promoter is Prof. dr. Dr. H. Suryapranata.
The co-promoters are Dr. A.W.J. van ‘t Hof (Isala, Zwolle) and Dr. J.M. ten Berg (St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein). The promotion will take place on Friday, April 24, at 10:30 a.m. Location: Academic room Aula, Comeniuslaan 2 in Nijmegen.