300 attend Max Hospital health talk at DSOI

Chandigarh, April 19, 2014: As many as 300 retired officers from Indian Defence Services and their families attended a Max Super Speciality Hospital (MSSH), Mohali health talk on ‘Heart Team Approach (HTA)’ at  Defence Services Officers Institute (DSOI), Sector 36, here this evening.
Speaking during occasions, Dr Virendar Sarwal,  Principal Consultant & Chief of Department of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery, MSSH, Mohali said that rapidly expanding treatment options for heart diseases like valve repairs, coronary artery bypass surgery and arrhythmia treatment would often confuse the patient. Because of the wide ranges of new treatment options, patients could get confused about their future course of treatment. In the latest concept of HTA , the patient was offered the best possible treatment choices available for them.
Dr Sarwal further explained that in HTA, every stable patient was counselled by a Heart Team about the pros and cons of procedure and based on reports he was given the best suitable option of treatment.  So every patient would know about best option for him or her. This approach was based on the concept that patient was a priority in medical decisions.”
In this concept there was one big operating theatre where the patient was given best of the expertise both in Cardiology and Cardiothoracic sciences. In post operative period, another team of doctors would guide him about life style management after heart disease.
Heart Team was mandatory in most western countries for any cardiac centre. In India too, patients were now encouraged to take opinion from both the Cardiologist and Cardiac Surgeon (post angiography). The patient would decide on the intervention for himself, after weighing the benefits and disadvantages of that intervention. This would make his treatment less risky, more durable and economical. Thus the healthcare team would become an extended family of the patient during his treatment, pointed out Dr Sarwal.
Dr Sarwal said that these remarkable breakthroughs would mean a new concept of patient care, bringing together Interventional Cardiologists, Cardiothoracic Surgeons and other experts under one roof to evaluate each patient and design customized treatment plans to meet specific patient needs. This approach would not only improve outcomes and overall patient satisfaction, it was also ensured wholesome care for the patient.                         
Benefits of Heart Team are:
?  Shared decision making
?  Broader input by different physicians
?  Minimize fragmented decision making and Improves coordination of care.
?  Improving timelines and consistency of decision
?  Allows more intricate and patient-centred treatment plan .
?  Increases cross-speciality interaction and discussion