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BRAD ANGEJA: I am so sensitive to the possibility
that a perfusion study might miss
significant coronary disease, I have definitely
felt like we are more often right with the HeartFlow
analysis.
INTERVIEWER: Providing precision heart care
is a top priority for many organizations.
But finding the right tools can be challenging.
BRAD ANGEJA: If our eyeballs have a better focus because we
have better information, then the patients
are going to do better.
The right diagnosis is always better.
INTERVIEWER: Fortunately, innovative technologies
and greater collaboration across disciplines
are advancing the field of Cardiology.
ERIC FLAGG: In the past decade, we've
seen hundreds of studies that prove that coronary CT is not
just a problem-solving tool, but really is probably
the most powerful first line diagnostic test for the work
up of coronary artery disease.
INTERVIEWER: Pairing CT with the HeartFlow analysis
provides a clearer diagnostic pathway
and is driving a fundamental shift in cardiac care
that benefits administrators, physicians,
and most importantly, patients.
ERIC FLAGG: The HeartFlow analysis brings to coronary CT,
taking those exact same images that we took on that one visit
with no extra radiation, and providing us
that next step, which is the physiologic alterations that
occur from coronary artery disease.
And that's really the key piece that guides therapy is not just
how narrow the artery is or how blocked,
but how is it limiting blood flow to the heart muscle,
and can often help answer the question of whether there
is disease or not, does the patient need
an invasive catheter angiogram.
That previously, I think, prior to HeartFlow and coronary CT
was less clear.
BRAD ANGEJA: HeartFlow has really
helped me interpret the CT scan, because it'll
take a lesion that maybe looks pretty bad,
and then if we get a reassuring HeartFlow
analysis on that lesion, it'll give us the confidence
to treat medically and maybe not bring the patient
to the angiogram lab.
ERIC FLAGG: To the administration
of the cardiovascular service line,
they recognize the value in a multidisciplinary approach
to diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease.
BRAD ANGEJA: It's useful to imagine
what it would be if we didn't have a collaborative approach.
Over half my job is talking to patients
and providing clinical care, which I love very much.
If I wanted to be as good at interpreting even
the cardiac structures I would have to spend a lot more time
doing it.
And then we meet in the middle with the HeartFlow analysis.
ERIC FLAGG: It enhances the dialogue after the scan,
because you're looking at the anatomy,
I'm looking at the anatomy, and I'm
correlating it with what we get back in the HeartFlow analysis.
You know, from my standpoint, the more robust
the communication between specialties,
taking care of patients, the better patient
care that will be achieved.
BRAD ANGEJA: I've had people come to me,
excited about hearing that they could
get a heart scan of some kind.
And being able to see their arteries
and see the colors of the HeartFlow analysis,
from a standpoint of patient understanding, education,
consent, adherence to therapy, I think
they are much more engaged.
ERIC FLAGG: You get the whole team
to realize that by getting a high quality exam,
you can literally be saving a patient a invasive procedure
in some cases.
It does up the game.
And we have great motivation to improve.
I think the collaboration has really
enabled us to have multiple sites in the Bay Area, now
Sacramento Valley as well, that are providing
high-quality, consistent CT programs where HeartFlow can
perform the analysis upwards of 90% of the time, in some sites
almost 100% of the time.
BRAD ANGEJA: We've always joked that nuclear medicine is
unclear medicine because the images are a little fuzzy.
And I actually think that's a good analogy.
As doctors, we're trying to look at all this data
and focus it the way you do with glasses to make
the images really clear.
I think CT and HeartFlow analysis
are going to nudge profusion studies out of the way.
And to me, that's an exciting thing.
It's being ready to look at the next horizon
at the next informative way of helping our patients.
We've reached that point where the HeartFlow analysis
gives that same confidence of bringing the images into focus.
For me, that personal experience is
feeling like am putting glasses on and seeing better.
It's a good feeling.
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