Honolulu paramedics treating heart attack victims can now wirelessly transmit vital data ahead of the ambulance so doctors have the information before the patient reaches the emergency room.

The partnership between the city Emergency Medical Services Division and The Queen's Medical Center, announced yesterday, aims to shorten the time between the onset of a heart attack and treatment, said Patty Dukes, city Emergency Medical Services chief. The system allows paramedics to send certain types of electrocardiograms directly to an emergency room.

"Emergency medical technicians have been reading EKGs all along," Dukes said. "But what's different is that we can send that information (to the hospital) now." An electrocardiogram, or EKG, measures the electrical activity of the heart.

Queen's is the first hospital in the state to go online, and others are expected to obtain the technology, officials said.

While physicians don't know how many minutes the new system will save, they know that if they can remove a blockage within 90 minutes of the onset of heart attack symptoms, the fatality rate is reduced to 3 percent, said Dr. David Fergusson, a Honolulu cardiologist.

"This is all part of our efforts to help patients and reduce the amount of time it takes to get to the patient," Fergusson said. "The moments very much count."

In the heart business, doctors say that "time is muscle. The more we delay, the more heart muscle is damaged," Fergusson said.

Each year on O'ahu, city paramedics respond to more than 66,000 calls for medical emergencies and trauma injuries. In 2004, emergency medical personnel responded to 66,424 calls, of which 40,932 required transport to a hospital.

"With this cooperation with EMS (Emergency Medical Services), we'll be able to save time," Fergusson said. "In our hospital we have a program called Door to Balloon — the amount of time when the patient hits the door to when we insert the catheter and clear the blockage."