GHH First In Wichita To Offer High-Resolution CT Heart Scan

Galichia Heart Hospital has become the first health care facility in Wichita to acquire a Siemens Somatom® Sensation 64-slice CT scanner, a device that significantly improves doctors’ abilities to diagnose heart disease.

Individuals with heart disease risk factors should visit www.FirstInWichita.com to learn more, then ask their doctors whether the scan is right for them. Risk factors include:

• family history of heart disease
• high cholesterol
• high blood pressure
• diabetes
• tobacco use
• obesity
• inactivity

A limited number of appointments are available with this introductory offer. The procedure is not covered by insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and the fee must be paid by cash or credit card on the day of the scan.

“The 64-slice scanner makes it so easy to see heart conditions,” said Mark Bowles, M.D. “We’re able to diagnose conditions before they cause symptoms.”

“We can make the scan available at a lower cost than a heart catheter exam,” said CEO Tom Nester. “It’s also less invasive and requires almost no time off work.”

“What we have here is an unprecedented opportunity to save lives,” he said. “It would be wrong to keep this kind of technology behind closed doors. And the machine is so fast that we’ll be able to image a lot of patients in a day. We can acquire an amazingly detailed image in the span of a single breath-hold.”

“It’s every cardiologist’s dream,” said Gregory Boxberger, MD.

Bowles said, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I can name just a handful of innovations over that time that represent quantum leaps in cardiac medicine. This is one of them.”

Galichia Heart Hospital is a full-service medical facility with a staff of physicians specializing in cardiology, interventional cardiology, diagnostic radiology, nephrology, emergency medicine, nuclear cardiology, electrophysiology, interventional vascular medicine, gastroenterology, orthopedics, general surgery, sleep disorders, internal medicine, family practice and endocrinology.