Is Your Heart Doctor In? If Not, You Might Not Be Any Worse Off

Gary Waters/Getty Images/Ikon Images

Gary Waters/Getty Images/Ikon Images

If your cardiologist is away at a conference when you're having a stabbing feeling in your chest, don't fret. You may be more likely to live.

A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found frail patients admitted to teaching hospitals with two common types of heart problems were more likely to survive on days when national cardiology conferences were going on.

The researchers also discovered that heart attack patients who were at higher risk of dying were less likely to undergo angioplasties when conferences were occurring, yet their mortality rates were the same as similar patients admitted at other times. An angioplasty, in which a doctor unblocks an artery with an inflatable balloon inserted by a small tube, is one of the most common medical procedures for cardiac patients.

The conclusions about teaching hospitals surprised even the authors, who had begun their inquiry anticipating that death would be more common during cardiology meetings because hospital staffs were more short-handed than usual. Finding the opposite, the researchers speculated that for very weak patients, aggressive treatments may exceed the benefits.

"There's something very specific about cardiology meetings and cardiology outcomes," said Dr. Anupam Jena, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the lead researcher of the study. "I can tell you with almost certainty that something different is happening in the hospital, but I can't tell you why this is happening."

The study looked at Medicare patients admitted to 263 major teaching hospitals between 2002 and 2011, during days that the American Heart Association or the American College of Cardiology held their annual meetings.

These conferences draw thousands of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other medical professionals who come to hear of the latest research, therapies, drugs and technologies, as well as to network and socialize with colleagues.

Dr. Patrick O'Gara, president of the American College of Cardiology, said he was reassured by the finding that patient mortality didn't increase when those doctors were away. "People should take away from this particular paper that they should be confident of going to a teaching hospital at any time of the year," he said. He cautioned against drawing any conclusions from the paper's finding that mortality rates dropped for some people, noting that the data are "not granular enough to provide information about what types of patient therapies the patients received."

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Is Your Heart Doctor In? If Not, You Might Not Be Any Worse Off