Maryland's Health Matters - St. Joseph - Winter 2015 - (Page 3)

A HEALTHY START Find Your Heart Disease Risk H stage and determines the risk of future heart attacks. A CT scan is painless and noninvasive, yet like any other X-ray-based procedure, it does involve radiation. However, the beneﬁt of detecting heart disease usually outweighs the small risk involved in this scan if you have risk factors for coronary disease. eart disease is the No. 1 killer in America. Find out whether you're at risk with UM St. Joseph's fast, free and conﬁdential online assessment. The online evaluation will tell you whether you are at risk for cardiac disease and how to get help. Knowing your risk proﬁle will help you take control of your health and provide you with the best defense against heart disease. You'll also receive a personalized report and conﬁdential information. Q. WHAT IF THE EVALUATION SHOWS I'M AT SIGNIFICANT RISK FOR CARDIAC DISEASE? A. With your permission, a staff coordinator from the UM St. Joseph Heart Institute will call to encourage you to see your physician or offer you a more detailed screening test using a CT scan and a calcium score. An Your Health Information at Your Fingertips appointment for the CT scan may be made at that time. Q. WHAT IS A CT SCAN AND CALCIUM SCORE? A. Cardiac calcium scoring uses a special X-ray called a computed tomography (CT) scan to ﬁnd the buildup of calcium on the walls of the arteries of the heart (coronary arteries). The presence of calcium indicates that there may be plaque in the coronary artery. This test helps diagnose heart disease in an early A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Patients can view health information such as recent doctor visits, discharge summaries, imaging (X-ray) reports, medications, immunizations, allergies and lab results. Health providers everywhere, including UM St. Joseph Medical Center, are offering this option as a way to enhance communication, support care between visits and even improve outcomes. Here are some primary points to understand about patient portals: Not all portals have the same information or sign-in procedures, but there are some basics that apply across the board. All patient portals get information from your electronic medical record used by your physician's Q. WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT DURING SCREENING? A. The CT scan takes only a few minutes, but expect that your full appointment will take about one hour. Your results will be reviewed with you during this time. It's recommended that you share your risk factors and calcium score with your primary health care provider. If you do not have a physician, UM SJMC can help you ﬁnd one. Take the free heart disease risk assessment at stjosephheartaware.com. office or the hospital. This is why you may have multiple portals; one for each physician you have and one for each hospital. A valid email and secure password are critical to maintaining the security of your information. You can only use one email address per person and portals cannot be shared. So in the case of a family physician caring for a whole family or a care provider who shares the same physician, you cannot have one combined health care portal account. Each person has a separate record and portal sign in. Caregivers can only get access to another person's portal if that person grants them the login information. Self-enrollment is the ﬁrst step. You will need an access code or instructions to enroll in a health care portal. This typically comes from your physician's office or through the hospital. Learn more about the patient portal at umms.org/myportfolio.  Get started: Go to stjosephheartaware.com to take the free heart disease risk evaluation. stjosephtowson.com | Winter 2015 3 http://www.stjosephheartaware.com http://www.umms.org/myportfolio http://www.stjosephtowson.com http://www.stjosephheartaware.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maryland's Health Matters - St. Joseph - Winter 2015

Maryland's Health Matters - St. Joseph - Winter 2015
In This Issue
A Healthy Start
And the Beat Goes On
A Healing Journey
Back (and Neck) in Action
A Life Back in Bloom
At A Glance
Healthy At Home
New and Events

Maryland's Health Matters - St. Joseph - Winter 2015