St.LukesHealth is proud to announce its partnership with Dr Warrick Bishop and the Healthy Heart Network to combat heart disease in Tasmania. This partnership is helping deliver St.LukesHealth's vision of making Tasmania the healthiest island on the planet.
Heart disease is responsible for an average of 118 deaths in Australia every day. However, many heart attacks and strokes can be prevented if risk factors are detected and managed early. As part of their mission to become the healthiest island on the planet, St.LukesHealth and the Healthy Heart Network are inviting 100 participants to take part in a pilot study program.
Chief Health Officer Luke Cameron said the program is designed to gain an understanding of the heart health of St.LukesHealth members and Tasmania as a whole. The first step to lowering your chances of developing heart disease is understanding your risk. Participation in the pilot study program is of no cost to members.
"There is a large population of Australians who are dying from heart disease, and we want to better identify those at risk through using a CT acquired cardiac calcium score (also called a coronary artery calcium, “CAC score”) to assess how the results alter management or not."
“The program's goal is to perform a basic cardiac health screening and, if appropriate, a CAC score. From there we can work together with Healthy Heart to raise more awareness and help more Tasmanians stay healthy,” said Luke Cameron.
Dr Warrick Bishop said the program consists of an online virtual heart assessment, visiting a locally situated CT scanner, and a follow-up survey every three months for 9 months. The program is delivered on a web-based platform with supportive educational resources and email communications from the Healthy Heart Network.
“This exciting initiative will more accurately define risk of heart attack and so save lives by identifying high risk individuals allowing therapies to be put in place before a problem occurs,” said Dr Warrick Bishop.
At St.LukesHealth, the wellbeing of our community is important to us, and we want to support everyone in ensuring that wellbeing is an active process of becoming more aware of and making choices towards everyone’s best health journey and overall healthspan.
Visit our website to learn more about the program and together, let us work towards making Tasmania the healthiest island on the planet.
ENDS