Edward M. Bender, MD, FACS, cardiothoracic surgeon and section chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Saint Francis Medical Center, has developed five cardiothoracic applications for the iPhone, which are now available in the iTunes App Store. His apps, four of which were developed as physician tools, range from free to $3.99 each. The fifth app is for patients and families.
Bender developed the apps on his own and worked with ARMUS Corporation, a Silicon Valley based information technology provider in the healthcare quality improvement field, to finalize the design and functionality.
More detail on each app is below:
CV Surgery Ventilator Risk
Prolonged ventilation after open heart surgery is a risk factor that extends ICU stays and increases incurred costs and poorer physiologic outcomes. This application is used to predict the risk of postoperative mechanical ventilation after open heart surgery.
EuroSCORE Calculator
EuroSCORE stands for European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation. It is a method of predicting the chances of dying during or shortly after undergoing open heart surgery. This application allows the logistic calculation of risk for open heart surgery.
CV Surgery Risk
Cardiac surgery has inherent risks. This application is designed to estimate the risk of morbidity and mortality following the most common types of open heart surgery. It is designed to be used as a tool to guide physicians' discussions with patients, families and healthcare providers regarding the potential outcomes after open heart surgery.
PCI Risk
Risk stratification for medical procedures is an important part of appropriate therapy for many diseases, including coronary artery disease. This application serves as a simple bedside tool, using common clinical variables, to predict mortality or major adverse cardiac events with percutaneous coronary intervention in the pre-procedural period.
Heart Surgery Risk
This application is designed to give patients and their families an estimate of what the chances for complications or death are for a patient who is considering coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). The calculator is based on data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons STS National Database® and the Online STS Risk Calculator®.
Bender is currently working on a sixth app, which will provide a single access point to data from all the major cardiothoracic societies. Also in the development stage is a cardiothoracic application for the newly announced iPad.
Bender earned his medical degree from Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich. He completed both his internship and residency at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colo., before moving on to the University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, Ill., for his fellowship. Bender has continually brought new technology and procedures to Saint Francis during his 13-year tenure, and is now using the da Vinci® robotic surgery system for minimally invasive cardiothoracic surgery.