Featured Speaker Heart Beat Now
Dr. Stephen Fort
BIO:
Dr. Stephen Fort Position: Staff – Interventional Cardiologist at Kelowna General Hospital Clinical Assistant Professor –University of British Columbia Dr. Stephen Fort graduated from the University of Leeds, U.K. in 1984. He completed his training at University of Wales Hospital, Royal London Hospital London and Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He was British Heart Foundation research fellow at the University College of Wales 1989-91, studying myocardial contract and endothelial function, receiving his MD in 1993. He was also Interventional Cardiology fellow at the Toronto General Hospital 1994-1995. He was appointed Staff Cardiologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre and University of Toronto 1998-2003. Between 2003 and 2009 he was Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University, and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre. He is currently Staff Cardiologist, specializing in percutaneous coronary intervention, and cardiac and coronary imaging at the Kelowna General Hospital.
Medical and Surgical House Officer: St. James’s University Hospital, Leeds, England, 1984–1985
Senior House Officer in General Medicine: Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, England, 1985–1986
Senior House Officer in Chest Medicine and Haematology: Killingbeck Hospital, Leeds, England, 1986
Registrar in Endocrinology and Senior House Officer in Cardiology: University Hospital, Cardiff, Wales, 1987
Registrar in Nephrology: Cardiff Royal Infirmary, Cardiff, Wales, 1987–1988
Registrar in General/Respiratory Medicine and Geriatric/General Medicine: University Hospital, Cardiff, Wales, 1988–1989
Registrar in Cardiology and Gastroenterology: University Hospital, Cardiff, Wales, 1989
Registrar in Cardiology: Royal London Hospital, London, England, 1991–1993
MD: University of Leeds, Leeds, England, 1993
Senior Registrar in Cardiology: Western General Hospital and Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1993–1995
Senior Fellow in Interventional Cardiology: Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, ON, 1995–1996
Senior Registrar in Cardiology: Western General Hospital and Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1996–1998
Senior Clinical Fellow in Cardiology: Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Science Centre and University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, 1998–2000
( Dr. Stephen Fort, Cardiologist, Kelowna, BC ) is in good standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Stephen Fort, MD, MBChB, FRCSC, Cardiologist, discusses the lifestyle seven-point Plan for health.
Video Title: Lifestyle Seven-Point Plan for Health Cardiovascular disease both heart and strokes are due to the same underlying pathology.
It’s a blockage of the blood vessels due to cholesterol-based disease otherwise known as atherosclerosis. The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have lodged an ambitious plan to reduce the incidence of death on these two conditions by 20 percent.
And to do so they’ve raised a seven-point plan. Now the seven-point plan involves getting active, eating better, losing weight, stopping smoking, controlling cholesterol, managing blood pressure, and reducing blood sugar.
And a recent survey in North America showed that only one in ten, that’s ten percent, of the U.S. population actually achieved five of these points. And only 20 percent, two out of ten, actually managed to achieve four of these points.
Well, patients finding difficulty following these seven steps in a bet to improve that quality their quality of life and their life expectancy should see their family physician.
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Fort, Cardiologist, Kelowna, BC
Local Practitioners: Cardiologist
Dr. Stephen Fort, MD, MBChB, FRCSC, Cardiologist, explains how a multilayered approach to stroke prevention in AF patients can be effective.
Stroke is a devastating disease, we would obviously like to prevent it. And one of the risk factors is atrial fibrillation. Normal people have a regular heartbeat, that’s called sinus rhythm. When patients have atrial fibrillation, the heartbeat is irregular and often fast.
And small clots can form inside the heart, break off, travel to the brain, and cause a stroke. Now it’s important to note, that whether you have symptoms or not from your atrial fibrillation, or whether you’re permanently in atrial fibrillation, or it occurs intermittently – once a day, once a week, once a month.
Irrespective of the form of atrial fibrillation you have, or whether or not you have any symptoms of your atrial fibrillation, you’re still at a three to five percent increase per year of having a stroke due to a blood clot. Therefore, all these patients still need to take oral anticoagulants.
Patients at a high risk of stroke from atrial fibrillation are strongly recommended to take an oral anticoagulant. And our preference is one of the newer oral anticoagulants, rather than Warfarin. Not only is it more convenient, less blood tests, possibly safer with less strokes, but also on the whole safer.
Now, all anticoagulants can cause bleeding. But the risk of severe bleeding, such as a bleed into the brain, are significantly less on the newer oral anticoagulants, than the old standard of Warfarin therapy.
Obviously for any disease, not just stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, the patient, individual, has to take the medication for it to be effective. Sometimes this is once a day, sometimes this can be twice a day. Compliance with the right therapy is obviously the key to treating or preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation.
To prevent a stroke, most patients with atrial fibrillation, especially those at high risk, need to take oral anticoagulants. But the treatment doesn’t stop there. Controlling their blood pressure is very important. Cessation of smoking, very important. And it’s also very, very important the patient exercises on a regular basis and looks after themself more generally.
If you have any further questions about atrial fibrillation, the therapy required, or the risk of stroke, then you should speak to your general practitioner or your cardiologist.
Presenter: Dr. Stephen Fort, Cardiologist, Kelowna, BC
Local Practitioners: Cardiologist