When an ambulance responds to the rescue of a patient with chest pain and paramedics perform an electrocardiogram that identifies an acute heart attack, the cardiologist on call at the Hadassah Medical Center is contacted directly, saving precious time.

The patient is brought directly to the cardiac catheterization laboratory where a team of cardiac physicians is waiting to treat him, bypassing any emergency room red tape. One recent victim of a heart attack, brought in my ambulance, found himself in the recovery room 55 minutes after he entered Hadassah’s doors. The cardiac catheterization team had opened the affected artery and the man suffered only minimal heart damage.