This may be a time in your life when you are going to have to be your own health advocate. No matter what, excuses will not save your life. "If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."

Excuse #1: Many people have asked us why their doctor has never told them about EBT and early detection of heart disease.

EBT is a relatively new and highly specialized and sophisticated imaging tool. Milwaukee Heart Scan is the only EBT center in the state of Wisconsin. Most of the other centers are located at major university hospitals around the world (Mayo Clinic, Baylor, UCLA etc.) There are hundreds of published papers and numerous textbooks but most of these are read by cardiologist, so your doctor may not have read about this technology or the implications of the test results. Milwaukee Heart Scan is committed to help educate you and your physician. ( By the way, there are many doctors in Wisconsin and Northern Illinois that do "get it" and are true advocates of this technology and have experienced the results first hand).

Excuse #2: Most people think that if they feel fine and have no symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath that they are not candidates for a heart attack.
    • Studies have shown that 70% of people who experience a heart attack had no prior symptoms.
    • And half of these people will not survive their first encounter with a heart attack.

Excuse #3: My doctor knows my risk level and he tells me I'm fine.
    • WRONG! Your doctor only has a very general idea of your risk by using a conventional risk factor
       assessment. "EBT will identify the highest risk patients eliminating the need to treat everyone with
       statins (Zocor, Lipitor etc.) or other costly medications." (American College of Cardiology 2002)
    • Think of a heart scan in the same way as a mammogram…women are told to get one even if there are
       no risk factors!!!

Excuse #4: But my insurance company will not pay for the test.
    • We will restate it again: this may be a time in your life when you are going to have to be your own health
       advocate. Most insurance companies are not interested in your personal health.
    • It is also a reality that deductibles are so high today that you will probably end up paying for your heart
       scan anyway.
    • With the arrival of Health Saving Accounts (HSA'S) there is no better investment then an EBT heart scan.

Excuse #5: But the heart scan does not detect whether I have major blockage
    • This is correct. The heart scan is interested in finding out whether the process of plaque formation has
       occurred years or decades before a blockage.
    • Two thirds of heart attacks occur when there is no significant blockage.

Excuse #6: I passed my stress test and my doctor told me I was fine.
    • 70% of heart attack victims would pass a stress test the day before a heart attack.

Excuse #7: Denial

In their book Handbook for Mortals: Talking With Your Doctor, Joanne Lynn M.D. and Joan Harrold M.D. address the all too human tendency to escape to the land of "I don't want to know" or denial. In their book they illustrate this point with a small dialog;

Patient: If it's bad news, I don't want to hear it. I especially don't want to know if my heart was worse on that last test. Tell my daughter, not me.
Doctor: Okay. I'm giving you this medicine to treat your pain. Take two pills three times every day, and come back in two weeks.

Patients are encouraged today to take control of their health care, and doctors are told to tell their patients the truth! But the fact remains, there are some people who really don't want to hear their diagnoses, or at least not yet.

All of us at Milwaukee Heart Scan are devastated on a daily basis when we ask our patients for referrals and we hear that they know many people that should come but won't because "they don't want to know". We feel compelled to confront denial because if we don't, people die. Denial is very painful and alienates friends and family…it destroys relationships.

Cardiovascular disease remains the No.1 killer of American men and women. EBT ranks as one of the five medical tests every American should have that can save your life, even if you have to pay for it. (Wall Street Journal 2003)

Please contact us today to make an appointment.