HOUSTON, Aug. 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SHAPE, The Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (http://www.shapesociety.org), a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to the mission of eradicating heart attacks, today announced that six additional East Texas Medical Center (ETMC) hospitals have earned SHAPE accreditation as International Centers of Excellence. The SHAPE Accredited Centers of Excellence program is a scientifically validated and guideline-based approach to early detection of Coronary Artery Disease.
The following ETMC facilities are the latest to earn SHAPE accreditation:
- East Texas Medical Center Athens
- East Texas Medical Center Carthage
- East Texas Medical Center Henderson
- East Texas Medical Center Jacksonville
- East Texas Medical Center Pittsburg
- East Texas Medical Center Quitman
These six join the ETMC Cardiovascular Institute and Medical Center in Tyler, which earned SHAPE accreditation as an International Center of Excellence earlier this year.
"With seven SHAPE Centers of Excellence, ETMC has established itself as a leader in implementing and promoting best practices in heart attack prevention," said Dr. Jeff Fine who administers the SHAPE Accredited Centers of Excellence program. "We estimate there are 3.8 million Americans who are basically ticking time bombs. They are at risk of a heart attack yet have absolutely no symptoms. Through training and technology, this program identifies at-risk patients so they can be treated before suffering a heart attack."
SHAPE Centers of Excellence focus on the prevention of a first heart attack by adhering to the First SHAPE Guideline for heart attack prevention. The guideline recommends at-risk men over age 45 and at-risk women over age 55 undergo either of the following non-invasive atherosclerosis tests:
- Coronary artery calcification scoring (CACS) by a computed tomography (CT) scan.
- Carotid plaque measurement and carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) scanning by ultrasound.
Both tests have been shown to assess an asymptomatic individual's heart attack risk more accurately than relying on measuring traditional risk factors such as cholesterol and blood pressure.
"Most hospitals have not been able to establish a financially viable plan for offering preventive care, despite the fact that physicians, hospital CEOs and healthcare policymakers know that primary prevention is more cost-effective than and superior to secondary prevention," said Dr. Morteza Naghavi, the Founder of SHAPE and Executive Chairman of the SHAPE Task Force. "The SHAPE Centers of Excellence program assists hospitals with implementation of a viable plan for primary prevention. We encourage hospital administrators to learn more about our program."
Since 2012, SHAPE Centers of Excellence have identified nearly 49,000 patients with asymptomatic coronary artery disease. More than 13,500 of these patients were at very high or imminent risk of suffering a heart attack.
View brief interviews with Drs. PK Shah, Daniel Berman, Mathew Budoff, and Morteza Naghavi about SHAPE Centers of Excellence: https://www.youtube.com/user/shapesociety.
For more information about the SHAPE Accredited Centers of Excellence program, please visit www.heartcentersofexcellence.org.
About SHAPE
Based in Houston, the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) is a non-profit organization that promotes education and research related to prevention, detection, and treatment of heart attacks. SHAPE is committed to raising public awareness about revolutionary discoveries that are opening exciting avenues to prevent heart attacks. SHAPE's mission is to eradicate heart attacks in the 21st century. Additional information is available on the organization's Web site at www.shapesociety.org.
About SHAPE Task Force:
The SHAPE Task Force, an international group of leading cardiovascular physicians and researchers, has created the SHAPE Guidelines, which educates physicians how to identify asymptomatic atherosclerosis (hidden plaques) and implement proper therapies to prevent a future heart attack. According to the SHAPE Guidelines, individuals with high risk atherosclerosis (high plaque score) should be treated even if their cholesterol level is within the so called "normal range". Knowing one's plaque score can be a matter of life and death. Additional information is available by calling 1-877-SHAPE11. And additional information is available at http://www.shapesociety.org.
The SHAPE Task Force includes the following:
Morteza Naghavi, M.D. – Executive Chairman
PK Shah, M.D. – Chair of Scientific Board
Erling Falk, M.D., Ph.D. – Chief of Editorial Committee
SHAPE Task Force Members (alphabetic order):
Arthur Agatston, M.D., Daniel S. Berman, M.D., Matthew J. Budoff, M.D., Raimund Erbel, M.D., Erling Falk, M.D., Ph.D., Sergio Fazio, MD, PhD, Steven B. Feinstein, M.D., Craig Hartley, Ph.D., Harvey S. Hecht, M.D., Howard Hodis, M.D., Ioannis Kakadiaris, Ph.D., Sanjay Kaul, M.D., M.P.H., Asher Kimchi. M.D., Wolfgang Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., Iftikhar J. Kullo, M.D., Daniel Lane, M.D., Ph.D., Roxana Mehran, M.D., Ralph Metcalfe, Ph.D., Morteza Naghavi, M.D., Tasneem Z. Naqvi, M.D., Jagat Narula, M.D., Paolo Raggi, M.D., George P. Rodgers, M.D., James HF Rudd, Ph.D., Robert S. Schwartz, M.D., PK Shah, M.D., Leslee Shaw, M.D., David Spence, M.D., H. Robert Superko, M.D., Henrik Sillesen, M.D., Ph.D., Pierre-Jean Touboul, M.D.
Distinguished SHAPE Task Force Advisor: Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D.
Chair of SHAPE Board of Directors: JoAnne Zawitoski
SHAPE Task Force Public Relations: Daniel Keeney
Executive Director of SHAPE Centers of Excellence: Jeff Fine, Ph.D.
Chair of SHAPE Society Cardiology Club: Brenda Garrett Superko