Dear Friends,

In an effort to make heart scans more widely available, I am delighted to introduce a new service:  AHSF’s Coronary Health Starter Kit.

This service consists of an affordable telephone consultation focused on a cardiac prevention.  As part of this service, I order the famed “mammogram of the heart“, the coronary heart scan that can detect the presence of coronary artery plaques in their early stage, before they cause complications such as heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest.

I recommend this service for men over age 40 and for women over age 50 (or younger women  if they had premature menopause).  You may consider obtaining the service at an earlier age if you have strong risk factors, such as a family history of coronary disease at a young age. This is a screening service, so it assumes that you feel generally well and have no specific symptoms to report.

I cannot think of a better investment for your heart health than to take advantage of this service and obtain a heart scan.  Please do not delay.  It is as simple as picking up the phone and calling 1-415-567-1014 between 9a-3p to make time for a telephone consultation.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU CALL?

1.  Initial phone consultation.  Edna will schedule an initial telephone consultation with me.  Prior to this consultation, we will try to obtain from you (or from your physician) specific medical information that is pertinent to your heart health (for example, a recent blood cholesterol test, medication list, etc.).

2.  Heart scan.  After the first telephone conversation, we will arrange for you to have a heart scan at a facility of your choice.  The scan takes less than 10 minutes to perform, does not require the injection of any dye, and uses a low amount of radiation.

3.  Final phone consultation.  When we have the results of the scan, we will schedule a second and final telephone consultation so I can communicate the results to you and give you my final recommendations for future monitoring and for any changes to your lifestyle or medications.

4.  Report.  We will generate and mail you a report that summarizes our recommendations and includes your scan results.  If you would like, we are also happy to transmit our report to your primary care physician for his or her guidance.

We offer the coronary health starter kit service for a total of $200, payable at the end of the first telephone consultation.  The heart scan’s maximal out-of-pocket cost in the SF Bay Area varies from $100 to $350 depending on the facility.  The cost is not necessarily reflective of the quality of the scan.  We are happy to guide you in the choice of facility where you would have the scan performed.  Note that we have no financial interest in any of these facilities.  Our unbiased recommendation will be based exclusively on your needs and convenience.

Note: this service is only available to California residents.