Who is at Risk?
All youth!
The SafeBeat Initiative offers heart screening programs to a variety of populations.
- Middle School Students
- High School Students
- College Students (coming soon!)
- Various Ages at Special Events
Screening Recommendations:
Young people want to grow and learn and play without care or limitation, and you want to do everything you can to nurture and protect them based on what you know. The facts speak for themselves. According to the American Heart Association approximately 7,000 active and apparently healthy young Americans die every year from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).
Doctor Sunita Ferns, board certified pediatric electrophysiologist of Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, FL was recently asked in a TV interview, “Should ONLY athletes be screened?” Dr. Ferns replied, “I would actually advocate screening for all young people starting from late middle school to you know right up through your high school years. And really that’s because even though we hear about athletes on the field because that’s the most catastrophic event and when you have a child that drops suddenly in front of you on a basketball court, this can devastating for not just for the family but the community. But to be truthful, about eight times more deaths occur in non-athletic kids than athletic kids and so I believe that all kids should be screened.”
The American Heart Association published July 2019: The routine use of the AHA 14-point evaluation or similar history based questionnaires as the “principal” tool for pre-participation cardiovascular screening of youth athletes should be reevaluated. The study’s conclusion found that the AHA 14-point evaluation produces a higher number of false-positive results with a poor sensitivity and very low predictive value. It further states that the ECG screening outperforms the AHA 14-point questionnaire by all measures of statistical performance when interpreted by experienced clinicians.
SafeBeat is proud to say that its preventative heart screening program meets and exceeds the recommendations of AHA.
Youth (Grade School)
You know that sports can bring out the best in your child, fostering discipline and teamwork in pursuit of excellence, but there may be something you do not know. Exercise, usually a healthy choice, can increase the risk of SCA on a compromised heart by 3-5 times. The United States Congress prioritizes heart screenings for children "who participate in, or intend to participate in, organized sports" as part of the Teague Ryan Act.
A 12-minute heart screening for a child can make the difference of a lifetime.
College Students
You are living your dream, feeling and looking great as you compete with some of the best athletes in the world, yet there is something important you should know. Unless you have had a recent (within 2 years) preventative heart screening, you could be at risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Majority of children and their parents are completely unaware of any heart problem -- right up to the moment of a fatal collapse. This is why it is so important to not only know the signs and symptoms of a potential heart condition but also be aware that many heart conditions do not exemplify a symptom prior to sudden cardiac arrest.
Some colleges now require that athletes undergo heart screenings as part of their pre-participation requirements.
Getting your heart screened means knowing you have done everything possible to protect yourself from Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
Did You Know?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) supports ECG screenings following the "Lausanne Recommendations".
Heart screenings are now required for all players in the:
- NBA (National Basketball Association)
- NFL (National Football League)
- NHL (National Hockey League)
- FIFA World Cup™ Series (Fédération Internationale de Football Association)
