PaperTexture - New Cardiac Risk Assessment Training for Practitioners to Incorporate SCA Prevention Into Their Practice

New Cardiac Risk Assessment Training for Practitioners to Incorporate SCA Prevention Into Their Practice

Studies show cardiac consideration is an often overlooked area of assessment, with practitioners, parents and youth alike largely unfamiliar with warning signs and risk factors that require follow-up. Yet research points to 1 in 300 youth with an underlying heart condition that puts them at risk. Now there is a first-of-its-kind medical training module detailing what primary care practitioners can do to incorporate evidence-based sudden cardiac arrest prevention protocol into their practices and equip youth to be their own heart health advocates.

Accredited by San Diego State University Institute for Public Health (IPH) and University of California, Irvine, and produced by the Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation in collaboration with Parent Heart Watch and members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and esteemed medical practitioners around the country, the Cardiac Risk Assessment in Youth CME/CNE is free and on-demand to a credentialed practitioners and non-credentialed advocates via the IPH course portal.

Early evaluations show course participants are highly satisfied, learned something useful and plan to make changes in their practice as a result. Pre-testing revealed only 7% of course attendees were very or completely confident that they would recognize the warning signs of a potential heart condition, and only 6% were very or completely familiar with current cardiac assessment guidelines. Post-testing showed a significant increase in this knowledge, the most dramatic being a new awareness of the true incidence of SCA in youth and that ECG is a critical diagnostic tool that can detect two-thirds of conditions that can cause it.

These are critical skill sets in best-practice evaluation of symptomatic or asymptomatic youth, considering that:
• Up to 49% of SCA victims had a significant family history
• Up to 60% of SCA preceded by symptoms did not consider a cardiac diagnosis from their practitioner
• Up to 72% of SCA is preceded by unrecognized warning signs

The course was developed based on a rigorous needs assessment that accessed more than 350 published findings, some of the most significant asserting that:
• The early recognition of heart abnormalities that can lead to SCA is critical for prevention
• The AAP acknowledges that warning signs and risk factors are often missed by medical professionals and parents/youth
• Currently recommended cardiac risk assessment tools are largely unused
• Physical and history alone miss more youth at risk than when an ECG is part of the screening

Create a free account login on the IPH website, then complete the course at your leisure. Find more information about the course. Take a home Cardiac Risk Assessment now to discuss with your medical practitioner.

New Cardiac Risk Assessment Training for Practitioners to Incorporate SCA Prevention Into Their Practice
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