• Christopher Kabrhel, Rachel Rosovsky, Richard Channick, Michael R Jaff, Ido Weinberg, Thoralf Sundt, David M Dudzinski, Josanna Rodriguez-Lopez, Blair A Parry, Savanah Harshbarger, Yuchiao Chang, and Kenne... more th Rosenfield. less
• Center for Vascular Emergencies, Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Electronic address: ckabrhel@partners.org.
• Chest. 2016 Aug 1; 150 (2): 384-93.

BackgroundIntegrating newly developed tests and treatments for severe pulmonary embolism (PE) into clinical care requires coordinated multispecialty collaboration. To meet this need, we developed a new paradigm: a multidisciplinary Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT). In this report, we provide the first longitudinal analysis of patients treated by a PERT.MethodsOur PERT includes specialists in cardiovascular medicine and surgery, emergency medicine, hematology, pulmonary/critical care, and radiology, and is organized as a rapid response team. We prospectively captured clinical, therapeutic, and outcome data at PERT activation and during follow-up periods up to 365 days. We analyzed data collectively, and as five mutually exclusive 6-month periods. We performed Fisher exact tests and regression analysis to test for trend.ResultsIn 30 months, there were 394 unique PERT activations, 314 (80%) for confirmed PE. PERT activations increased by 16% every 6 months. Most confirmed PEs were submassive (n = 143, 46%) or massive (n = 80, 26%). The PERT treated a relatively large proportion of patients with PE and systemic or catheter-directed thrombolysis (n = 35, 11%), though the most common treatment was anticoagulation alone (n = 215, 69%). Hemorrhagic complications were rare overall, especially among patients treated with catheter-directed thrombolysis. The all-cause 30-day mortality of PERT patients with confirmed PE was 12%.ConclusionsWe report our initial 30-month experience with a novel multidisciplinary PERT that rapidly engages multiple specialists to deliver efficient, organized, and evidence-based care to patients with high-risk PE. The PERT paradigm was rapidly adopted and may become a new standard of care for patients with PE.Copyright © 2016 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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