Here’s how you can get screened for cardiovascular disease risk factors

The Ottawa Heart Institute is offering free screenings for heart disease as part of its “One Million Canadian Hearts” campaign. CTV’s Peter Szperling reports.

The Ottawa Heart Institute has launched the next phase of a campaign to screen one million Canadians for cardiovascular disease risk factors.

The Ottawa Heart Institute is now offering heart disease “risk factor screenings on-site to adults aged 18-years and older with no known heart disease,” according to a press release.

The “One Million Canadian Hearts” initiative aims to identify and address risk factors early, before heart disease progresses, allowing for “timely intervention that can slow or even prevent its development.”

“We’ve seen firsthand through our heart valve mobile screening effort how powerful early detection can be, particularly for older adults,” Dr. David Messika-Zeitoun, scientific and medical director of One Million Canadian Hearts and director of the Centre for Valvular Heart Disease at the Ottawa Heart Institute, wrote in a press release.

“By scaling this approach through One Million Canadian Hearts, we aim to expand screening to a broader population, with a targeted focus on cardiovascular risk factors, to meaningfully improve outcomes at the population level.”

“It’s all about prevention,” says the Ottawa Heart Institute’s Jennifer Morand.

Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada and the leading cause of death globally.

Morand says many people may not even know about symptoms or potential issues arising for them.

“High blood pressure, high cholesterol — they’re usually symptom free. There’s not a lot of signs telling people that they need to go get checked out,” she says. “And so, it often leads to issues, and they end up in hospital, where they find out they they’re having cardiovascular issues.”

“So, we’re here today, to prevent that from happening and trying to screen patients to see if we can catch it before it gets to that point,” she says.

According to the Ottawa Heart Institute, the organization is collaborating with community partners to extend screening in community settings. On Thursday, the first clinic of the new initiative is taking place at the Vanier Community Service Centre, initially offered to staff as part of a workplace wellness initiative.

“I am doing the screening because it is important to participate,” says Andrée-Anne Martel, executive director of the Vanier Community Services Centre. “If there is something that I should worry about, I want to know about it sooner rather than later.”

According to the institute, participants identified as needing follow-up care will be referred to their primary care providers or connected with specialized programs at the Ottawa Heart Institute.

To learn more, or book an appointment, visit 1mhearts.ca.

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