Early in my career, mainly by chance, I became involved with Sports Cardiology, which was definitely not part of my original plan. 

How It Started

Just as each of our providers found their way to Atria Heart on a different scenic route, my journey brought me to Arizona via Boston, where I then joined a group of cardiologists in Phoenix for 15 years before making my way to Atria Heart. And just as each of us brings a unique skill set in addition to cardiovascular medicine, here is the story of how I developed my unique outlook and skill set.

Fresh out of training and in Phoenix for less than 3 weeks, my then partner, Dr. Reuben Valdez, said to me, “Hey, you’re from Canada, you must like hockey.” Little did he know that I learned to skate before I could walk, and like most kids from Montreal, I revered the Montreal Canadiens in a relatively unhealthy way.

When I replied that I indeed enjoyed hockey, he said “Well, come with me to examine the Phoenix Coyotes next week. I don’t know the first thing about hockey.” Was he serious? Was I about to enter the inner sanctum of the NHL?

Sink Or Swim

Needless to say, I did not sleep for a week. When we arrived, I tried to keep my cool. But my first player to examine was Claude Lemieux, someone whom I had watched play for the Montreal Canadiens when I was growing up.

Yeah, I was not going to be cool. Far from it.

By the end of the day, I had a grin from ear to ear, and could barely speak. Dr. Valdez said, “You like this way more than I do. You should take over as the team Cardiologist.” So, after being in town for a month, I was now the cardiologist for a professional sports team. 

In preparation for the following season, I researched all areas of sports cardiology and sought guidance from my mentors back in Boston. That was 20 years ago.

A Different Perspective

Throughout the years I have encountered all sorts of cardiovascular adventures with the players and staff, but looking back, the best thing about this experience was that I truly learned to appreciate what we know as the patient perspective. I’ll explain.

These hockey players had one focus – to play. Nothing was going to stop them. During preseason physicals, there was always the chance that an injury or medical condition could end their career, but their perspective remained the same, which was to play at all costs. 

The stakes are high when clearing players to play competitive sports. Athletes are not immune to cardiac issues and differentiating between athleticism and disease is always a challenge, especially with elite athletes.

I realized quickly that this outlook “to play at all costs” didn’t only apply to athletes. This patient perspective also applied to my non-athlete patients back in the office. It was always different on the surface, but in the end, there was a common theme: patients did not want an illness or therapy to take away the parts of their life that made them “them”.

You Can Ride Your Horse If You Want To

A perfect example of this is a patient of mine who rode his horse every day. When we needed to put him on blood thinners and told him it was too dangerous to continue riding his horse, he looked me in the eyes and said “Well, then put me in the ground.” This was part of his identity. Taking it away was not an option. We found a different way to protect him without blood thinners and he continues to ride his horse to this day.

Identifying this patient’s perspective regarding his medical care helped ultimately guide his care. Preserving a patient’s identity is of utmost importance and must be part of the medical decision-making.

Over the decades, I helped care for the Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, and more recently, the Seattle Mariners. Appreciating patient perspective remains a clear focus when caring for these players, and all of my patients in between seasons.

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Note To Reader:

When deciding to start a blog series, we at Atria Heart discussed what message we wanted to convey to our audience. Some said we should focus on our mission of providing quality care, others suggested educating about the types of diseases we treat in cardiology, while some suggested we highlight our diverse interests as practicing physicians. We concluded that the answer was all of the above. In this series we hope to touch on each of these important aspects, further connecting healthcare professionals to our patients.

Atria Heart was founded in 2015 on the principle of redefining healthcare delivery, with an emphasis on patient experience. Working as a team, our providers and staff strive to deliver timely, quality, and compassionate care. Our success relies on well-designed processes at every point of a patient visit. Most of us have experienced first-hand how easy it is for breakdowns to occur, interfering with care delivery and a good overall experience. We have learned throughout our journey that we must listen to patient feedback. Taking constructive criticism to heart (pun intended), and adjusting our processes is part of the path to success.

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