Researchers from UMC Utrecht, Tilburg University and Amsterdam UMC received a subsidy of 300,000 euros from ZonMw to improve the diagnosis and treatment of women with possible heart problems. The researchers will continue to develop a decision aid to help women with heart complaints to see their GP on time and to support them in their discussion with their GP. In addition, the researchers are bringing a software decision aid to the practice that helps to determine whether additional imaging tests are needed.
In the Netherlands, 36,000 people die every year, half of whom are women, from cardiovascular disease. Many women experience complaints of which it is unclear whether they are an expression of heart disease. It is sometimes difficult for them to decide when to contact a GP. For the general practitioner and cardiologist, it is a challenge to decide who can be sent home with peace of mind. Unfortunately, because the complaints in women are not always clear, the correct diagnosis is often missed or it takes too long before it is made.
Decision aid for complaints
“In the IMPRESS+ study, we are investigating how the diagnosis and treatment of women with possible heart complaints can be improved,” explains Saskia Haitjema, doctor-researcher at UMC Utrecht. “My colleagues in Tilburg and Amsterdam are going to further develop a decision aid to help women with heart complaints to visit their GP on time and to support them in their discussion with their GP. In our research we look at how we can best add the decision aid for complaints to existing information websites.”
Decision aid for imaging research
In addition, the researchers in Utrecht are putting a gender-specific software decision aid into practice. Haitjema: “This decision aid helps to determine whether additional imaging tests are needed during ‘joint decisions’ in the cardiologist’s consultation room. We implement the software at UMC Utrecht and investigate the experiences of patients and cardiologists. Based on this, we perfect the software and prepare this medical device for further roll-out in other hospitals. We are very excited about the possibilities of digital health for this patient group.”
The decision aid was developed through a successful hackathon at UMC Utrecht on 6808 patients who underwent coronary angiography. “Diagnosing women with possible heart problems is a challenge. At the moment, a lot of expensive, time-consuming and patient-intensive imaging research is carried out, the results of which, however, are for the most part negative. The decision aid can be used to support the joint decision of cardiologist and patient whether or not to perform additional imaging tests after the usual diagnosis to exclude a cause of the heart complaints.”
Collaboration MEDxAI
The researchers are working together with the start-up MEDxAI on the further development of the software. Tjebbe Tauber, CEO MEDxAI),: “Valorisation is an important theme at UMC Utrecht. As a start-up, we dovetail well with our ambition to bring this software to the consulting room. The hackathon was a wonderfully inspiring week, but you only make a real impact if this decision aid is used in regular care.”
About the research
IMPRESS is a Dutch consortium led by Professor Hester den Ruijter from UMC Utrecht and Professor Eric Boersma from Erasmus Medical Center. It was founded in 2020 to better research cardiovascular disease in women, to pool, disseminate and implement existing knowledge about cardiovascular disease in women. IMPRESS is funded and supported by the partners of the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA). With IMPRESS+ research, funded by ZonMw, the researchers will enable the implementation of the decision aid and decision aid.
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