Sixteen Beijing hospitals Thursday joined the "door-to-balloon" program to try to save more patients suffering from heart attacks.

The list included major hospitals specializing in heart disease, said Hu Dayi, director of heart disease section of Peking University People's Hospital, one of the participants, on Thursday.

The program, nicknamed "D2B" established by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, sets a 90-minute door-to-balloon time as the quality of care benchmark for acute myocardial infarction patients.

"Door to balloon" refers to the interval from a patient's arrival at hospital to inflation of the balloon catheter within the blocked artery, a standard treatment for the condition.

"Time is life. The sooner doctors reach myocardial infarction patients, the better chance of saving them," Hu said.

The program recommended practices to avoid delays, such as having the emergency department physician activate the cath-lab team by making one call to an operator who then calls all doctors in the team rather than finding a list and calling them one by one.

The program offered a platform to share information and experience with other hospitals, including 900 in the United States, Hu said.

"We hope that with these efforts Chinese patients can benefit from the latest international research achievements," he said.

About 2.6 million Chinese die of myocardial infarction and stokes every year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2007)