A dedicated centre at Queen Mary Hospital for treating heart attack patients says it will expand and start using artificial intelligence to further improve treatment.

The chest pain centre, which opened one year ago, has already treated 1,400 patients with acute heart attacks. Around 160 of these patients underwent life-saving angioplasty surgery to restore blood flow to the heart arteries.

Streamlined procedures have successfully halved the time from a patient’s admission to surgery, reducing it to just 53 minutes.

Dr Carmen Chan, a consultant cardiologist at the hospital, said that after the centre’s expansion, AI will be incorporated into its electrocardiography (ECG) diagnostic system to further speed up the triage process.

"Reading ECG is very labour-intensive because we need to have the specialist techniques to read out and make a correct diagnosis. So what we are planning to do is, after the ECG is acquired, it will go through an AI model to try to risk stratify it, to see whether the patient belongs to the low-risk, moderate-risk or high-risk group," she said.

"For those of high risk, they will be immediately connected and sent to the cardiologist on call, so the cardiac team can prepare the operating theatre far in advance to see the patient."

The number of cardiac catheterisation laboratories – rooms used for treating heart conditions through minimally invasive procedures – will increase from two to three. Chan said this will help meet higher demand during the upcoming winter season and support the city’s ageing population.

Six day care ward beds will also be available for follow-up treatment of non-emergency patients and those suffering from complications after surgery.