URMC-FDA Partner on Heart Data Project

By Jen Markham

Rochester, NY – The University of Rochester Medical Center is teaming up with the Food and Drug Administration to researchers develop safer heart drugs.

They're creating a national database of electrocardiograms to collect heartbeat data from more than 30,000 patients all over the world who have worn devices to monitor their heart activity for hours or days at a time

Project director Doctor Jean-Philippe Couderc says longer periods of heart data are more valuable to researchers because they give a more accurate picture of the critical recovery phase of the heartbeat, also called the "Q-T interval"

"The idea in this research is really to give the opportunity to researchers at for-profit companies and to the FDA to have access to data where they can look also at what happens to the heart on a continuous basis," said Couderc. "Not just only at specific snapshot, but look at what happened 5-10 minutes before, one hour before, and better assess if there are any changes in this QT interval, where it's coming from"

Doctors say changes in the Q-T interval often aren't clear on standard E-C-Gs, but can heighten the risk for sudden cardiac arrest.

The database will help pharmaceutical companies develop drugs that don't prolong the Q-T interval, because experts say that trigger is the leading cause of the removal of drugs from the market.