HealthMeeting: the innovative platform for cardiologists in Sardinia

Sassari, January 15, 2024 – It is called HealthMeeting, and it is the platform dedicated to hospital, outpatient, and private cardiologists within the healthcare system of the Sardinia Region. It allows professionals to request high-complexity outpatient cardiology services (Level II and III) directly from the Clinical and Interventional Cardiology Department of the University Hospital of Sassari.

The collaborative clinical platform has been designed to simplify and optimize access to high-complexity outpatient cardiology services. With a wide range of services and advanced request management, HealthMeeting, unique in its kind in Sardinia, promotes a modern and efficient approach to high-level outpatient cardiology.

The new service was presented this morning to cardiologists from the region and hospital facilities. In the meeting room on the seventh floor of Sassari Civil Hospital, there were the Regional Health and Hygiene Councillor Carlo Doria, the General Director of AOU Antonio Lorenzo Spano, and the Director of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology Gavino Casu.

In essence, through collaboration with the supplier company and the Information Technology and Networks Department of AOU, the platform has been tailor-made to meet the needs of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology at AOU. "It was initially conceived as a teleconsultation platform," explains Professor Casu, "but it was reshaped to meet our needs, with the creation of specific clinical templates for each outpatient clinic. In this way, we also make transparent the bookings for second and third-level procedures that cannot be made through the Cup."

The service started in the preliminary phase in mid-November last year and is now fully operational.

"HealthMeeting represents a significant evolution in the management of high-complexity outpatient cardiology services," says Antonio Lorenzo Spano, the General Director of AOU Sassari, "offering cardiologists simplified and timely access to a wide range of specialized services. Furthermore, with HealthMeeting, we make bookings transparent and expedite the process of delivering services. The service integrates with the growing activities of Clinical Cardiology and confirms our commitment to high-quality service and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies for the benefit of patients in Sardinia."

The HealthMeeting Platform

To make the platform accessible, a dedicated page has been created on the institutional website of AOU Sassari, providing a brief overview of the purpose and access methods. To access it, from the homepage of www.aousassari.it, simply click on the blue banner (top left) with the inscription "HealthMeeting – For cardiologists in the Sardinia healthcare system."

Inside the page, clicking on "Access the platform" directs cardiologists, once accredited, to a dedicated page containing a comprehensive list of available outpatient services, covering a wide range of specialist areas.

The list of outpatient services includes those for the outpatient clinic for Ischemic Heart Disease and Dyslipidemia, Cardiomyopathy Clinic, Structural Heart Disease Clinic, Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic, Heart Failure Clinic, Arrhythmology Clinic, Cardio-Oncology Clinic, Level II Echocardiography, Ergometry, Hemodynamics, Cardiac Pacing, Electrophysiology, Electrode Catheter Extractions, and finally, Channelopathies and Sudden Death Prevention.

After completing the request and consenting to the processing of personal data, the submitted application is immediately displayed on the corporate server of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology at AOU Sassari. The requesting physician and the patient then receive an email with the requested appointment date, making the process fast and efficient.

Activities of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology

The new service represents further growth for the department on the first floor of Santissima Annunziata, which, in 2023, recorded record-breaking activity. According to data from Clinical Cardiology, there were 3,500 admissions, both in regular and day hospital regimes, with 800 angioplasties, 181 percutaneous aortic valve replacements, 80 percutaneous atrial appendage closures, 10 percutaneous mitral valve corrections, 30 patent foramen ovale closures. "These are much higher numbers compared to those recorded in previous years," says Gavino Casu, "especially when compared to pre-Covid numbers, when, for example, less than a thousand hemodynamics procedures were recorded, now exceeding 2,200."

The growth of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology is not only in terms of services but also from a logistic perspective. The Sassari University Hospital has invested in improving the structure led by Professor Gavino Casu, as well as in training and technology.

In this regard, the adoption of non-thermal ablation technology with Farapulse technique for the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is noteworthy, placing Sassari hospital among the few in Italy to use this technology.

Among other novelties, the activation of the third interventional cardiology room and the restructuring and modernization of spaces for Cardiac Rehabilitation, including outpatient clinics and day hospitals for heart failure, should be mentioned.

Heart failure is a pathology that is progressively increasing in the population. Treating these patients within the structure allows effective therapy management and reduces costs for hospitalizations.

Those treated in the Day Hospital are patients with advanced-stage heart failure who require more frequent clinical monitoring. These are largely patients discharged from hospital wards with a heart failure diagnosis. They also have a high risk of disease exacerbation and a high risk of being re-hospitalized, which, due to the pathology, becomes longer and requires more human and technological resources.

"Their management," says Gavino Casu, "allows us to decongest the emergency room and our own structure. Outpatient management will also improve their quality of life."

Works for Clinical and Interventional Cardiology

The structure on the first floor of Santissima Annunziata has two hemodynamics rooms and, since 2022, also an electrophysiology room, as well as ancillary rooms such as a dressing room for staff, a storage room, and new rooms for the administration, a meeting room, and medical offices.

Recently, the facilities of cardiac rehabilitation were renovated and are now ready for use. The restructuring of Cardiology outpatient clinics on the first floor has begun, and the creation of the new Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (Utic) is planned in the current location, along with the restructuring of the Cardiology department and the south wing of the hospital, which will be transformed into a ward for cardiac admissions.

At the end of the works, there will be an entire first floor of the civil hospital where activities related to the heart will be concentrated.

Press release from the AOU Sassari Press Office