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One-stop cardiac health plan begins Sept. 16

Goal is to prevent heart attacks, stroke by providing easy access to services

An MUSC program offering a one-stop approach to cardiac health will begin accepting patients Sept. 16. The medical center's new program is made possible by a $1 million gift from Charleston residents Beverly and Wally Seinsheimer.

The Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program, located in the Medical University of South Carolina's new Ashley River Tower, is designed to help women and men prevent heart attacks and strokes through easy access to a range of services. Those services will include cardiovascular exams, cardiovascular health assessment imaging, nutrition assessments, counseling, weight management, exercise physiology, endocrinology and vascular services.

Bev Seinsheimer, a former cardiac nurse, is a member of the MUSC Heart & Vascular Center's board and the founder of the MUSC Women's Heart Health Symposium. Wally Seinsheimer serves on the MUSC Foundation board of directors. The benefactors wanted to establish a legacy program to help people avoid catastrophic illness and to live longer, healthier lives.

Those treated in the program must be adults with certain risk factors for heart attack and stroke, such as a family history of heart attack, stroke, sudden death or heart failure; abnormal blood lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides); history of tobacco use or current tobacco use; hypertension (high blood pressure); diabetes or pre-diabetes (metabolic syndrome); poor dietary habits; overweight; lack of exercise; or known history of heart or vascular disease.

More than 80 million adults in the United States have cardiovascular disease, says the American Heart Association. About 78 percent of those adults, ages 20 to 80, should take preventive measures. If all of them were to take such measures, heart attacks would be reduced by 63 percent and strokes by 31 percent.

Dr. Pamela Morris, who also is co-director of the Women's Heart Care program, will determine what patients need during their first appointment. She previously served as medical director of the Duke University Preventive Approach to Cardiology program and as consultant to the Mayo Clinic's Division of Cardiovascular Diseases in Rochester, Minn.

The number to call for an appointment is 792-1616.

Reach Wevonneda Minis at 937-5705 or wminis@postandcourier.com.

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