I was asked by Sir George Mathewson over 20 years back to help establish a world-class centre for coronary heart disease screening and that it would become part of the health and wellbeing programme for all the Banks employee's over a certain age (who were not already identified as being at high risk). After a series of global cataclysmic events the £5M imaging facility ended up being part of the QMRI here in Edinburgh and overseen by the University.
This is now under the stewardship of the most outstanding Prof Van Beek with whom I have a close affiliation. There is no doubt over that time we have saved numerous lives and totally changed the longer-term risk profile for hundreds of others. Making good use of these imaging tools and for less than £500 (current price). A life-changing experience for many who were otherwise "blind" to their precarious situation.
For which there are effective interventions part of which involves driving down LDL Cholesterol (the "bad stuff") to under 2.0 for those who stand to benefit most. Knowing the truth and not relying upon simple aligorithms such as QRISK which we know misses many of the souls it is meant to detect. And lots more besides as each person is different, and gladly so!
Furthermore, we now have exciting opportunities to detect so called "soft plaque" which is not detected by CCS as it is not yet calcified and soft plaque can be advanced enough to obstruct a vessel or rupture to cause an overlying clot and heart attack. Have a look at Caristo.Com: what an opportunity we have here. And we can now access this easily in central London via One Wellbeck.
The opportunities to make a real difference within one of the world "capitals" of vascular disease is a great honour. Inspired by a great man. Thank-you.
Influence of Subclinical Atherosclerosis Burden and Progression on Mortality
