Led by electrophysiologist Jamie Decker, M.D., Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute team in St. Petersburg, Florida, partners with a non-profit organization to help more young athletes get screenings to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest.
Hi, my name is Jamie Decker and I'm one of the pediatric electrophysiologists at Johns Hopkins, all Children's Hospital. One of my passions is treating patients who have diseases that predispose them to sudden cardiac death. And as such, I have started up an exercise and sports cardiology program here at the hospital. Uh This program is designed to see patients who have these diseases and help them return to play and participate as much as possible in a safe manner. In addition to this, I also have partnered with an organization called who we play for, who provides ECG screening programs across the state of Florida and beyond. As you know, the American Heart Association has recommended that all athletes be screened in some in some form, particularly with a history questionnaire and a physical exam. And then further testing beyond that, based on those findings, we know that based on recent data that adding ecg screening to these, the history and ques history questionnaire and physical exam increases the risk of or increases the probability of finding some of these diseases. And so as a, as a member of the medical advisory board to who we play for I help facilitate these ECG screenings and have streamlined the process by which patients who have received an ECG that is abnormal, get evaluated in a timely manner and return to play as soon as possible in order to, to minimize disruption to sports. Unfortunately, some of these diseases do not get picked up on physical exam, history, questionnaires or screening and they may go on to have a sudden cardiac death event while playing sports. And so equally important to as screening is being able to prevent a sudden cardiac death. And so we have, we are working with local schools and colleges and organizations to ensure that CPR trained personnel are present that there is a ed um awareness and um use uh skill set available as well on the field. By, by performing all of these, we hope to increase the participation of, of athletes participating in sports and doing so in a safe manner to minimize the risk of sudden cardiac death. Thank you.
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