34: The Medicine Box: AstraZeneca’s Dr Anil Kukreja on Project Heartbeat, health tech

AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm that has become popular in India due to its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, has tied up with Bengaluru-based health-tech startup Tricog for Project Heartbeat in the country.

In this edition of the Medicine Box season 5, CNBC-TV18’s Ekta Batra gets in conversation with Dr Anil Kukreja, Vice President, medical affairs and regulatory, AstraZeneca about the project that aims to ensure early and accurate diagnosis of possible heart attacks of patients in Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Dr Kukreja noted early diagnosis and timely treatments are critical for heart attacks. With the project that has been piloted in eight hubs and 39 spokes across India, patients in Tier 2 city can have their electrocardiogram (ECG) test read by a qualified cardiologist.

The tech for Project Heartbeat has been created with ECG machines and communicators. The communicator sends ECG reading to a cardiologist who provides the diagnosis in a matter of minutes, Dr Kukreja explained.

“The focus is to reduce ‘Door to Needle’ and ‘Door to Balloon’ time,” the top AstraZeneca official said, adding that they are trying to train healthcare practitioners and technicians to ensure accurate medications in time.

Tune in to The Medicine Box Podcast for more