What are the causes of delays experienced by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service when they refer ST segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients for a primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)?

Maya Diaz completed the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme at ScHARR in September 2014. Maya decided to do the MPH because she always wanted to be part of an organisation which has patients’ health and well-being at heart. Her interest has always been oriented in helping people in a health dimension. Maya has been involved in health settings within her previous positions first as a volunteer fire fighter, then as a nurse and more recently as a clinical research associate.

Since completing the MPH programme Maya has been working at Barts Institute as a clinical trial coordinator where she is involved in the set up and running of experimental cancer medicine clinical trials which she finds fascinating. Maya hopes that in the future she will be working for the government and be part of national program implementation and delivery, especially in prevention (screening and immunisation).

The title of Maya's MPH dissertation project was 'What are the causes of delays experienced by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service when they refer ST segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) patients for a primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)?' The project involved a placement with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The project involved secondary data analysis of the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project (MINAP) dataset and content analysis of patient report forms and MINAP review meetings.  Among the 394 patients analysed, 289 patients (73.4%) didn’t experience any delay (Call-To-Balloon (CTB) times <150 mins). Overall, the findings of the study showed that the STEMI patient journey is complex and involves many interrelated stages and several factors could influence the timeliness. Focussing only on CTB is not enough, every key workflow require a careful evaluation.

Click this link to read more about Maya's research.