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Doctoring the Doctor
For one of Riverview Medical Center’s finest,
doing his job truly became a matter of the heart.
Richard Scott, M.D., is Riverview
Medical Center’s vice president
of clinical effectiveness and medical
management. In this capacity, he
is responsible for ensuring that the
hospital meets its quality goals and
regulatory obligations. Recently,
therefore, he was very involved in
developing the protocols that would
allow cardiologists to use Riverview’s
innovative 64-slice computed
tomography (CT) scanner to perform
CT angiography. At the time that he
was so instrumental in developing the
requirements for use of this equipment
in cardiology diagnostics, he had no
idea that this very equipment would
soon be so instrumental to his own
heart health.
Prompting Pays Off
Dr. Scott recounts the series of events:
"I worked very closely with Dr. Dale
Edlin to bring CT angiography to
Riverview. Dr. Edlin truly championed
the project because he knew that this
innovative procedure was something
we needed to make available to our
patients. One day, shortly after we
became operational, Dr. Edlin stopped
me in the hallway and asked me
if I had ever gotten that stress test
he had recommended two years ago.
I told him I felt fine, but he persisted.
'Why don’t we both find out,' he
said to me. Because the test was fast
and non-invasive, I really didn’t have
a reason not to."
For Dr. Scott, a family history
of coronary disease should have
been reason enough. His father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather
all succumbed to heart disease in
their early 60s. So he knew he had
a much higher risk of developing heart disease due to genetics.
Still, it was a fact he had
"carefully avoided thinking
about for many years."
"I’m like most middleaged
males — we don’t
think we’re sick until
something happens,"
continues Dr. Scott.
"And while my specialty
is orthopedics, my
involvement with the
CT angiography project
reminded me of a very
startling statistic I had heard
about coronary disease;
namely, for 25 percent
of people with coronary
disease, the presenting
symptom is sudden
death. So I decided
to have the test done."
Following Up on a Lead
"This non-invasive test provides
a clear, colorized, three-dimensional
look at a patient’s heart," offers Dale
Edlin, M.D., board-certified cardiologist
affiliated with Riverview Medical
Center. "The images taken using
the 64-slice CT scanner are so clear
that you can see the heart in much
greater detail. That makes it easier
for physicians to diagnose and treat
heart disease at a much earlier stage."
In Dr. Scott’s case, the test showed
a low calcium score, but the clarity of
the images also made evident the early
stages of plaque forming in two arteries.
With this discovery in hand, Dr. Scott
next went to see cardiology expert
Aristotelis Vlahos, M.D., to take that
long-awaited stress test, which would
provide a better understanding of his
current risks.
Fortunately, the combined results
of Dr. Scott’s tests showed that no
surgical intervention was required
at this point. "However," Dr. Scott
remarks, "Dr. Edlin made it very clear
that there were some lifestyle changes
necessary to keep my family history
from repeating itself."
The Power of Knowledge
And that’s the really amazing thing
about CT angiography: it puts the
power of knowledge in the patient’s
hands. As such, patients at Riverview
now have access to a 15-minute test
that will guide them toward healthier
lifestyle options while they’re still
young enough to see real results from
these changes.
"The impact of this test is that
it gives you the warning shot across
the bow that helps you to change
your course," summarizes Dr. Scott.
"I would advise men and women
to take a good hard look at their
family history, make an objective
assessment about their risk factors,
and discuss this test with their family
doctor. Everyone has 15 minutes
to devote to the rest of their life."
 – Tria Deibert
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