In response to “Emergency physicians should interpret every triage ECG, including those with a computer interpretation of normal”

Emergency department Code STEMI patients with initial electrocardiogram labeled “normal” by computer interpretation: A 7‐year retrospective review

“…Third, prior studies found “no delay in patient care or poor outcome” 2 and suggested that “any delay in EP (emergency physician) review of the computer interpreted normal ECG would not lead to adverse patient outcomes.” 3 Another hypothesized that ECG interpretation could “be deferred until the actual patient encounter” 4 and responded to concerns of falsely normal ECGs by stating that “expecting EPs to identify patients with acute coronary occlusion with computer interpreted normal ECGs may be unreasonable.” 10 But we found that 37.5% of Code STEMIs with culprits whose first ECGs were labeled as normal were still identified in real time by emergency physicians, despite the false reassurance of the computer interpretation. This altered the triage process and improved patient care, leading to faster reperfusion than those that were not identified.…”