After Del Huchulak suffered a heart attack four years ago, he no longer takes his health for granted.
He was shoveling the driveway of his St. Albert home one day and the next morning had trouble walking up the stairs. His wife immediately took him to the Sturgeon Community Hospital and Huchulak had three stents placed in his arteries.
"It's always secondary in your mind that you had a heart attack and it can happen again," noted the 74-year-old.
Huchulak is a patient at St. Albert's newest clinic, Cardio Connect, across from Summit Plaza on Inglewood Drive.
Open to patients since Jan. 5, Cardio Connect offers diagnostics tests typically available in hospital – electrocardiograms (ECG or EKG), cardio exercise stress test and cardio event recording – as well as consultation with a physician, dietitian or cardiac nurse.
"Yesterday I had an ECG, today a stress test and I am back again on Monday to see the dietitian. You can do it all in-house here," said Huchulak.
"One of the things about being a heart patient is that you require more care, you require monitoring … those are the things that are going to keep you alive longer."
Keeping heart patients alive longer isn't the only goal for Dr. Abboud Fahoum, the medical director for Cardio Connect.
"After doing this for 10 years, you come up with a wish – a life mission – to act early. I want to get to the population at risk and prevent the problem from happening."
Having worked in the field of cardiac rehabilitation at the Glenrose and Sturgeon hospitals for the better park of a decade, Fahoum said that patients can modify their risk factors for heart disease now instead of later, when it may be too late.
Prehab
One of the concepts Cardio Connect is built on is prehab – primary prevention of heart disease.
"My target is for a young, healthy 30-year-old to be as healthy and as young when they are 50 or 60," said Fahoum. "It's not just about a person going to their doctor and getting the minimum, we want them to get the maximum."
The basic "heart package" of services Cardio Connect offers includes a cardio consult, ECG, echocardiogram and exercise stress test. Patients can also opt for the comprehensive package – heart, circulation and lungs – or come in for periodic assessment.
Fahoum explained Cardio Connect's multi-disciplinary outpatient setting fills a gap in the Capital Region as hospitals have limited resources and long wait times.
"If we receive a referral for a patient and their stress test is urgent, we can do it in the same day. Going to see a heart specialist is also a very frightening experience and our main goal is to alleviate that stress," he said.
"You will get individualized service as if you were going to a gym," he said. "There aren't any practices like this in Alberta."
As cardiovascular disease accounts for one-third of all deaths in people over the age of 35, it is no surprise that private clinics performing cardiac diagnostic tests and monitoring are popping up across Canada – from Ontario to Calgary.
Kori Kingsbury, chief executive officer with the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario explained that while it is important for people to be engaged and interested in reducing their risks for cardiac disease, some diagnostic tests offer little or no clinical value.
"To be of benefit, diagnostic testing should only be performed with an appropriate clinical indication. Not all individuals will need to undergo cardiac diagnostic testing as part of their prevention program – it is best for the person to first check with their own physician prior to privately paying for a test that may not be necessary," she said in an email to the Gazette.
At Cardio Connect, all services are performed by Dr. Fahoum or a registered nurse, if not both.
The basic cardiac package costs about $200, but most are covered by private insurance companies if not Alberta Health, said Fahoum. Packages are also available for families, teams and organizations.
The clinic is currently seeing 25 patients per day. Fahoum estimates 60 to 70 per cent of patients are from St. Albert and Morinville, while the remaining come from around the Edmonton region.
"The community here is so eager for education regarding cardiovascular health and fitness, improving their lifestyles and really getting the next level in health care," said Fahoum.
