The focus of The Centre is the prevention of heart and vascular disease. There are no guarantees in prevention and the goal is to try to put the odds in your favor. Our clients are looking for advice regarding lifestyle modification and cardiovascular risk reduction. Each individual's needs are different. They may be looking for screening of occult disease, evaluation of symptoms suggesting heart disease or secondary prevention after suffering a heart attack or stroke to help reduce risk of further events and disability. Preventive treatment is not always covered by insurance. Most preventive screening is not covered by insurance (CT Calcium Score and Carotid CIMT Arterial Aging), but key components to many individual's assessment. The Centre still accepts most insurances for consultation and necessary cardiovascular stress imaging. MAXPULSE assessments are covered by most insurances as well. We do not determine what your health insurance provider will cover and you must be proactive to make certain you understand costs prior to testing.

Advanced lipids and biomarkers (Boston Heart & Berkeley Heart) are commonly used in our assessments and you will need to make certain your insurance covers part or all of the testing. Prevention is not cheap; however, with coronary stenting averaging $50,000 and the total cost of heart bypass surgery averaging more than $100,000 if no complications...prevention is a much more reasonable alternative if you can start early enough to avoid these major interventions. Don't misunderstand me, coronary stenting and heart bypass surgery are vital tools in the treatment of heart disease and stenting can stop a heart attack by restoring blood flow to the heart's muscle. Many patients; however, are not aware of Cardiac EECP done at Legacy Heart Care in Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin.  We have used EECP (Enhanced External Counterpulsation) for patients who were turned down by surgeons and these patients have thrived since their treatments without surgery.

Know your options and try to understand those treatments with Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines behind them. Careful that you don't simply bite the first thing you read on the internet and make that your mantra. Your health is far too important. Medicine is as much an art as it is a science. In 2009, Dr. Tricoci et al., at Duke University Medical Center found that only about 11% of cardiology guidelines were based on class A evidence. This does not mean they are doing the wrong things, just that much of what we do on a day-to-day basis is based on expert opinion and lower levels of evidence. I have personally witnessed the treatment of heart disease metamorph through multiple and good changes in the past 20-30 years. Guidelines are important, but treatment should always be based on the individual's needs and risks.  Below are some helpful links to assist you in better understanding some aspects of what we do in preventive cardiology.