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Heart attack patients now have more help to save their lives.

Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton has joined Prince George's and Charles counties' Emergency Medical Service units to provide LIFENET, an Internet-based system that transmits heart scans from the ambulance to a waiting laboratory.

According to a hospital press release, Dr. Francis P. Chiaramonte, the hospital's founder and chairman, donated the funding for the purchase of LIFENET for every EMS unit in the two counties and to pay ongoing system costs for five years.

LIFENET can "transmit a heart attack patient's electrocardiogram directly to the nearest hospital's emergency department from the ambulance" with the push of a button, the release states.

Bill Stephens, director of the Charles County Department of Emergency Services, said that transmitting the information ensures that the hospital is prepared for the patient and enables the patient to bypass the emergency room and go straight to the cardiac catheterization laboratory.

LIFENET uses "the latest smart phone technology in a way which maintains patient confidentiality," said Roy H. Leiboff, medical director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at SMHC, adding that once the EMS diagnoses a patient with a heart attack, they can send a copy of the patient's EKG to his cell phone, alerting the lab that a patient is on the way and letting personnel know the severity of the problem.

"That gives me a lead time so that I can get to the hospital in the most timely fashion and be there to take care of the patient. A heart attack is a very time-sensitive emergency; it doesn't always occur when the hospital is fully staffed. We have to find new ways to allow us to be available on very short notice to meet the patient's needs," Leiboff said.

The cardiac catheterization laboratory is the focal point of care for heart attack patients, he said.

"They are best served by opening up the artery, which is causing the heart attack," also known as coronary angioplasty.

The EMS has been using the transmission system for more than a month now, Stephens said.

"It's installed in all of the [advance life support] ambulances in the county. There have actually been patients who have had successful outcomes because of the capabilities of the system," he added.

Leiboff said, "It's another way in which modern technology allows us to do our job more efficiently and better. Certainly this is a very important way because people's lives depend on the timely application for the treatment for heart attacks."

Currently, SMHC is the closest hospital with a cardiac catheterization laboratory capable of performing angioplasty.

Civista Medical Center in La Plata offers diagnostic cardiac catheterization and is able to catheterize the coronary arteries, inject dye and take pictures of blockages, according to a statement from Dr. Mark Dumais, chief medical officer with Civista Health.

"When [we] discover blockages we transport patients to tertiary facilities, which also have heart surgery programs, where angioplasty or surgery can be performed as appropriate," he said.