iPods for Your Heart

PHOENIX (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- iPods -- they're everywhere. And now you can hear more than just music in them. Patients can get the latest health information right at their fingertips, anytime, anywhere!

This is a new idea in medicine; using iPods and the Internet to educate patients. Arizona Heart Institute cardiovascular surgeon Grayson Wheatley, M.D., is the first to give his patients iPods. Patients can hear and see information about diet, exercise and the heart.

Programs also explain balloon angioplasty, stenting and show doctors performing a bypass.

"One of the biggest complaints in medicine is patients don't get enough time with their doctors, and the iPod can be an extension of time that they get with their doctors," Dr. Wheatley tells Ivanhoe.

Patient Phil Calderone says, "Doctors tend to you know, be really technical about it, and this helped me get a little better understanding of what he's talking about." He would rather spend his days with his grandson than with his doctor. Now he can watch the information on his computer or download it into his iPod.

Dr. Wheatley says, "They can watch it several times, and they can get a true understanding of exactly some of the complex things that we're doing."

"It helps me understand how to take care of myself in the future. I want to be around when he graduates college," Calderone says. And with health information at his fingertips, chances are, he will be.

The Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix is the first medical institute to use iPod vodcasting for patients. You can log on for free and check it out at http://www.cvmd.org.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Marisa Maggio-Harelson
Arizona Heart Institute
2632 N. 20th Street
Phoenix, AZ 85006
(800) 345-4278
mharleson@vasaz.com