Miriam getting creative for heart health

In October 2004, Keith Beck, now 56, suffered a heart attack. To prevent future problems, doctors put three stents in his blood vessels, and then they referred him to The Miriam Hospital’s Center for Cardiac Fitness.

The center gives lectures and provides a place for patients to exercise, but it also takes a non-traditional approach by having events such as supermarket field trips, family nights, cooking demonstrations, food festivals, weight loss challenges, fitness games and intimate meetings with behavioral therapists, dietitians, nutritionists and pharmacists.

“Our goal is to reduce their risk of another cardiac event,” said Loren Stabile, program manager for the center. “We have to work on risk factor reduction and behavior modification. A very large component is the education piece, and the challenge we were faced with is to how best to communicate this to people of various education levels and learning styles.”

Initially, Stabile said, the center offered 30-minute sessions in a traditional classroom setting. “But what we were finding,” she said, “was that they weren’t leaving the room understanding the points we were trying to get across, and therefore, they weren’t implementing them.”

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About a year and a half ago, Stabile said, the center’s staff “decided to be a little more creative in providing the education. … We developed six to seven programs to communicate our message in a more interactive fashion.”

The new approach has worked well for many patients, including Beck.

“I’m in better shape now,” he said, “and I attribute that to being here.”

Beck started with the center through a 12-week program that is available for those who have had a recent bypass surgery, heart attack or cardiac intervention. But he, like many others, decided to continue with the center when his 12 weeks were up. The cost for that ranges from $70 to $90 per month, depending on how frequently a patient uses the center.

Beck said he mainly enjoys exercising at the center because it keeps him on a schedule and there are medical personnel there if needed. But he has also participated in non-traditional activities.

“I’ve had my wife come to the healthy cooking demonstrations, too, because she is the one doing it,” he said. “The demonstrations are always a little more interesting [than a lecture], because it’s more interesting seeing something done.”

And he said it has worked.

“My eating habits have changed, and my wife’s cooking habits have changed,” he said. “Naturally, to prevent going back to any heart problems, you have to not only exercise, but also eat healthy, and all that is part of what they teach you.”

But the demonstrations aren’t the only activities that have helped him. Beck lost 24 pounds during a weight loss challenge at the center and participates in the softball games that the center puts on in the warmer months.

Julianne DeAngelis, the health educator at the center, said Beck isn’t alone in staying beyond his 12 weeks; roughly half the center’s clients have done so.

For many, Stabile added, the program can also become a social activity.

“One of the motivating factors for patients is the social support system,” she said. “Often they participate because someone else is staying on. They develop relationships, and they come to see that person.”

The program, which serves patients from 30 to 90 years old, has been such a success, that in 2006 the center won an award from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for its creative approach to patient education and lifestyle modification.

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