Device may prevent most heart attacks

[itku2er]

found this article while surfing for something else i find it very interesting any thoughts on this one?

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.....xml&coll=7

Terr

[AZCEP]

Good way for cardiologists to get more insurance money from their patients.

Focus on prevention, instead of some new gadget.

[crazycanuck]

Terri this is an interesting link and brings up a few thoughts.

Implanted cardiac technology has come a long way and now it is possible to use these devices in a wide population. Possible but perhaps not indicated. This device is somewhat similar to the Reveal implanted loop recorder. http://wwwp.medtronic.com/Newsroom/LinkedI...&lang=en_US

There are specific guidelines in place for indications of implanting devices and I'm sure that ACC/AHA/NASPE would come up with clear indications for this and eventually allow physicians to bill insurance for it. I'm not sure insurance is going to go for a "heart attack warning" implant and I'm sure there will be issues with justifying implantation procedures and possible misuse of these as well but that's a whole separate issue. It seems like if the person has a high enough risk for sudden death that either treatment of the blocked vessels or underlying cause of the problem would be the proper way to go. It can be difficult enough to obtain approval for cardiac devices when there is a clear indication for them. Due to cost of procedure and the number of people who are candidates, insurance companies may often reject the initial request for coverage of these procedures. It will be interesting to see how they come up with the guidelines and justifications for implantation and what tests will be used to quantify risk and what the criterion for implant approval will be.

It seems like this device would be targeted toward the middle age patient with not enough risk factors to indicate any other device or intervention, but rather as a CYA policy that may be too often relied on instead of focusing on health and well being in the form of prevention and regular check ups. Furthermore, if this device is aimed at the patient who may not recognize their symptoms or ignores them, then what is the likelihood of that target patient seeing a physician about this device or following through with an implant procedure?

I think that as AZ said, if the medical system would focus on prevention we would not have so many people with coronary artery disease and we would not be focusing on damage control.

Please understand, I'm all for these device developments and really these types of things can be a blessing to people. I do think too that we need to remove ourselves from the age of invinsibility where we think we can continue to abuse our bodies and our health and that modern medicine will have a quick fix readily available for us.

References:

Gregoratos, G, Abrams, J, Epstein, AE, et al. ACC/AHA/NASPE 2002 Guideline update for implantation of cardiac pacemakers and antiarrhythmia devices: summary article. A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association task force on practice guidelines (ACC/AHA/NASPE committee to update the 1998 pacemaker guidelines). Circulation 2002; 106:2145.

[itku2er]

A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But I thought it was a interesting story to read just how far that technology has came.

thanks Jen for your reply

terr