USAF Central Electrocardiographic Library Archive Project moves into second phase Published Nov. 30, 2012 By Rebecca Varian Air Force Surgeon General Telehealth Office WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Office of the Air Force Surgeon General (AF/SG), Deployment Operations Telehealth Program, and the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine are in the second phase of a project that will provide the capability to electronically submit all cardiac studies from any USAF flight medicine clinic in original raw digital data format, to a central archive at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The "USAF Central Electrocardiographic Library Archive Project" will allow for ground- breaking research, expedite aeromedical cardiovascular evaluations and significantly improve the ability of the USAF to monitor pilot health. "Over the past two years we have digitized the world's largest database of cardiac studies on aviators," said Maj. Eddie Davenport, Aeromedical Consultation Service chief cardiologist. "Now we will receive these studies electronically from any USAF flight medicine clinic in the world, which will greatly improve timely cardiovascular evaluation and disposition for mission completion with vast research capabilities." The United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine's (USAFSAM) Aeromedical Consultation Service provides timely disposition for all cardiac-related disqualifying abnormalities of rated aviators. In the past, this has been a manual process requiring providers at the flight medicine clinics to submit requests for aeromedical consultation by mail, resulting in costly delays in getting aviators back to flight status. All electrocardiograms (ECGs) were scanned and saved in PDF format or stored on microfiche. Other cardiac studies including echocardiograms, cardiac catheterizations, and nuclear studies were sent by CD, DVD, or VHS tape. Now the ACS has a new cardiology image management and Picture Archive Communication System (PACS) in place and ready for phase II of this project. The resulting capability will be an automated web-based system enabling the Flight Medicine Clinics (FMCs) to transmit cardiac studies on USAF-rated aviators to the ACS central repository containing all past, current and future cardiology studies in one database. The system will support legacy ECG systems and new systems capable of sending cardiac studies in the original digital format, greatly enhancing the ability to query, review, and analyze data in ways that were impossible until now. This will facilitate more expeditious aviator evaluations, vastly improve the capacity to conduct research needed to support changes to Air Force policy/waivers and markedly improve provider productivity. "The Air Force Telehealth office is working to lead the AFMS into the future by building enhanced, cost-effective specialty services to achieve medically ready forces and healthy beneficiaries," said Lt. Col. Antonio Eppolito, Air Force Surgeon General telehealth chief. "This telecardiology project is at the leading edge of that effort." Currently the archive contains 1.2 million records on more than 280,000 aviators. As the central library matures, ACS will have the foundation of a complete cardiology record-set, consisting of imaging, reports and discrete test data for all rated aviators; including the ECG library records reaching back nearly 60 years. The extensive volume of data will provide the USAF with profound research capabilities from one database. This will make the ACS cardiac library one of the most comprehensive cardiac libraries in the world, supporting the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine's vision to be an, "International Center of Excellence for Aerospace Medicine Consultation, Research, Education, and Training." USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez) Photo Details / Download Hi-Res USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)