EP02: Have You Planned Your Heart Attack?

Welcome to my podcast. I am Doctor Warrick Bishop, and I want to help you to live as well as possible for as long as possible. I’m a practising cardiologist, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and the creator of The Healthy Heart Network. I have over 20 years as a specialist cardiologist and a private practice of over 10,000 patients. Podcast Summary Introduction Dr. Warwick Bishop is a practicing cardiologist and author dedicated to improving patient care through heart health education. In this episode, he introduces his book "Have You Planned Your Heart Attack?" and discusses a pivotal moment in his medical career when a patient he had previously cleared via treadmill testing suffered a sudden cardiac event during a fun run, prompting him to explore better methods for predicting individual heart attack risk. Key Takeaways: Traditional risk calculators have been used for 25-30 years but provide population-level probability rather than precise individual predictions, making them imprecise for personal health planning. Risk calculators can only tell patients their statistical likelihood (e.g., 10% chance in 10 years) but cannot identify which specific individuals will or won't experience an event, since individual outcomes are binary (0% or 100%). Cardiac CT imaging technology now allows cardiologists to visualize the heart's arteries directly, enabling more precise risk assessment compared to population-based calculator formulas. A single negative treadmill test cannot guarantee future cardiac safety, as demonstrated by Dr. Bishop's patient who passed testing two years before experiencing a fatal heart attack. The book addresses why cardiac CT imaging, despite its precision capabilities, remains underutilized in broader clinical practice. Dr. Bishop's approach integrates considerations of statins, family history, and proactive individual health management into personalized heart disease prevention strategies. The book is written for general audiences with diagrams and explanations to enable patients to have informed conversations with their doctors about appropriate testing options. Patient education and engagement in health decision-making are central to achieving better cardiovascular outcomes.