Tanner Health has deployed the PMcardio AI Platform across west Georgia and east Alabama. The deployment gives patients access to AI-powered ECG assessment during suspected heart attacks. Patients can now receive this support at several points of medical care. These include 911 ambulances, community hospitals, and cardiac centers.
The rollout represents the first commercial U.S. deployment of Queen of Hearts. Powerful Medical developed the AI ECG model for urgent acute coronary syndrome. The FDA recently authorized the technology through the De Novo pathway. Tanner Health introduced the platform only days after the authorization. As a result, clinicians can now use the technology during routine patient care.
“We are proud to be the first healthcare organization in the United States to adopt the PMcardio platform,” said Loy Howard, president and CEO of Tanner Health. “Healthliant Ventures, which is the innovation arm of Tanner, aims to improve access, transform care and empower professionals for higher quality and better efficiency. PMcardio aligns closely with all of this — helping to detect acute heart attacks from ECGs and improving outcomes. This technology builds on our continued investment in cardiovascular care, ensuring that patients move quickly from initial assessment to the specialized teams and advanced capabilities available at Tanner and Adams Heart Center.”
A heart attack occurs about every 40 seconds in the United States. However, conventional ECG interpretation can miss certain acute coronary occlusions. These cases may not meet traditional STEMI criteria. Therefore, clinicians may face delays in recognizing the condition and starting treatment. The PMcardio AI Platform connects with Tanner’s Epic electronic health record. It also connects with existing EMS workflows.
When patients receive a 12-lead ECG, Queen of Hearts provides an AI assessment. This process applies within Tanner ambulances and emergency departments. The AI assessment serves as secondary support for clinical decisions. Where appropriate, it can also support earlier cardiology consultation. It may further help guide decisions about cardiac catheterization.
Supporting Faster Cardiac Decisions
“This deployment reflects Tanner’s commitment to bringing advanced cardiac care closer to the communities we serve,” said LaQuinta Grizzard, MSN, RN, NE-BC, AACC, vice president of Heart and Vascular Services at Tanner Health. “By integrating PMcardio and the Queen of Hearts AI ECG model across EMS, emergency departments and cardiology workflows, our clinicians have another decision-support tool to help recognize high-risk heart attack presentations earlier, including cases that may not meet traditional STEMI criteria. That shared insight can help support faster evaluation, more informed escalation and timely access to the right level of care.”
Queen of Hearts aims to support clinicians beyond conventional STEMI criteria. The model has support from more than 20 peer-reviewed studies. Those studies include more than 40,000 patients across four continents. A multicenter U.S. study included 1,032 patients. The study appeared in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. Queen of Hearts identified 553 of 601 confirmed STEMIs from the initial ECG.
Standard triage identified 427 cases in the same study. Meanwhile, the false-positive rate declined from 41.8% to 7.9%. These findings highlight the potential role of AI ECG tools in emergency cardiac care. They also demonstrate how clinical decision-support technology can complement established workflows.
“Regulatory authorization tells clinicians a technology is safe and effective, but the real test is whether it changes what happens to the patient in front of them,” said Robert Herman, MD, PhD, chief medical officer and co-founder of Powerful Medical. “With Tanner, Queen of Hearts is entering routine clinical practice in the United States for the first time, giving paramedics, emergency physicians and cardiologists a shared, objective assessment of the ECG at the moment critical decisions are made.”
FDA Authorization Expands AI ECG Use
The FDA granted Queen of Hearts De Novo authorization in September 2026. The authorization established a new device classification. The classification covers AI ECG models for acute, life-threatening cardiovascular diagnoses. Previously, the FDA granted the technology Breakthrough Device Designation in March 2025.
The achievement contributes to the wider approval of AI applications in healthcare and creates a framework for using AI diagnostic technologies in cardiac care. The technology is enabled all stages of emergency medical services, connecting EMS professionals with emergency department and cardiology services.
“A patient having a heart attack in a rural community deserves the same diagnostic support as one who walks into a major cardiac center,” said Michal Martonak, commercial director at Powerful Medical. “Since FDA authorization, hundreds of health systems and clinical sites across the United States have expressed interest in deploying Queen of Hearts. Tanner is the first to turn that demand into a live deployment across ambulances, emergency departments and the cath lab. It is a blueprint for bringing AI-supported cardiac diagnostics to the point of first medical contact.”
Through this deployment, Tanner Health brings AI ECG assessment closer to patients. The PMcardio AI Platform also supports coordination across emergency and cardiovascular care settings. The approach places AI-supported cardiac assessment closer to the first medical contact. Therefore, clinicians can access additional ECG insights during critical moments in patient care.
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News Source: Businesswire.com
