Heart Health Goals

First of Many

As our first blog of what I hope turns into many heart health blogs, I am Dr. Van De Graaff, a cardiologist with the newly created CHI Health Heart and Vascular Specialists practice. Please, note that my comments in this blog are not representative of the opinions or positions of CHI Health.

I feel it is important to have a local online forum that allows us to discuss various topics in cardiology and vascular medicine that are pertinent to our patient population. It seems that nearly every month a heart-related subject bubbles to the top of the popular media. Often, these spikes in popular interest translate into confusion or concern among patients, and many come to us for answers or our opinion.

Some Examples Include:

• The sudden heart attack death of political commentator, Tim Russert.
• The failure of a common cholesterol medication to show superiority over a cheap generic option.
• Concerns about the safety of a defibrillator wire.

There are aspects of these stories that are difficult for the average person on the street to cut through the rhetoric and find the real story. Some subjects of great importance, such as health care reform, are not discussed enough and deserve a brief highlight every now and again.

Goal of this Heart Health Blog

Consumers of health care services get bombarded with information from family, friends, magazines, TV, and the internet (and, occasionally, health-care professionals). Your job as a patient is to sift through that advice and understand the problem that's affecting you. My hope is that I can sift through that information and provide you with a relatively unbiased and straight-forward answer.

Of course, I want you to judge how close I come to achieving my goal. With each of my postings I would encourage you to respond with your comments, criticisms and questions. Also, if there are any subjects you’d like me to address, please let me know in the comments.