“My doctor ignored my heart scan. It took a heart attack to prove him wrong!”

CT heart scans have become an every day phenomenon in most major U.S. cities. Around 150 free-standing centers now operate nationwide that provide heart scanning services. A growing number of hospitals are now adding the newest version of these devices, the 64-slice device manufactured by health care giants GE, Phillips, Toshiba, and Siemens. No reliable estimates are available that have tabulated the number of people who’ve undergone these screening tests since their introduction in the late 1980s, but Bruce Friedman, CEO of HeartCheck America, with two scan sites in Chicago (University of Illinois-Chicago, Arlington Heights) and one in Los Angeles, reports that the Chicago centers alone have scanned over 100,000 people since their start. Even if we were to conservatively estimate that each of the 150 established centers scanned only 2000 people per year, that’s 300,000 per year.

“What’s the use of a heart scan to detect hidden heart disease if your doctor doesn’t understand what it means?” asks Milwaukee cardiologist Dr. William Davis. “I’ve seen everything from neglect to inappropriate bypass surgery. We shouldn’t allow this to continue.” Davis estimates that less than a quarter of all practicing physicians have devoted the background study to understand what heart scans mean. “All too often, busy physicians provide flip advice that has no basis. This is a shame and inexcusable, given the hundreds of scientific studies that have now been published validating CT heart scans.” Davis is author of the book, Track Your Plaque: The only heart disease prevention program that shows how to use the new CT heart scans to detect, track, and control coronary plaque.

To make information more accessible, Dr. Davis has written a new book that he is making available for free. What Does My Heart Scan Show? is being offered for free download at his website, www.trackyourplaque.com.

“I hope to arm people with reliable information before talking to their physicians. If a doctor advises you that your heart scan signifies low risk of heart attack, is this true? Does he/she deliver provide this advice out of true knowledge or ignorance? On the other hand, if your physician advises a major heart procedure, is it truly necessary? What are the alternatives? A heart scan is, in truth, the most important health test any adult can get—if used properly.”


A full listing of all scanners in the U.S. is available at the www.trackyourplaque.com website. Dr. Davis says that the www.trackyourplaque.com website will also be making available a free 100-page book, What Does My Heart Scan Show, that helps to get started on a heart disease prevention program that begins with a CT heart scan. Davis’ book, Track Your Plaque, is available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, bookstores, and www.trackyourplaque.com.