Heart Screenings Available for Student Athletes

Mercy Health - Cincinnati, which provides advanced, compassionate, quality care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that it has partnered with Mobile Cardiac Overview and Risk Evaluation (mCORE) to provide heart screenings for the student athletes at Mercy Health’s 27 partner high schools and universities.

Research finds that sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of death in young athletes in the United States, with a young competitive athlete dying suddenly every three days. SCD occurs without warning and often strikes active, seemingly fit people with no known heart disease or other health problems. It occurs most often during athletic training or competition. SCD is the result of electrical problems in the heart causing a dangerously fast heart rate that interrupts blood flow and leads a loss of consciousness within seconds and, if left untreated, death within minutes.

mCORE is the vision of Kenneth Berkovitz, MD, board certified in cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology and internal medicine and it provides sophisticated mobile heart screenings to young athletes to detect underlying heart abnormalities and help to prevent SCD.

“Since 2011, mCORE has screened over 15,000 student-athletes, finding abnormalities in five percent of those,” said Lisa R. Tennenbaum, mCORE Chief Operating Officer. “Our Mission at mCORE is simple: screen every student athlete to prevent these real tragedies from devastating families and communities throughout the country. We partner with schools and concerned parents to provide low-cost screenings and raise awareness about this silent condition, its diagnosis and treatment.”

“There’s nothing more important than the safety of our kids. With the addition of heart screenings to our partner high school and university care program, Mercy Health provides Greater Cincinnati’s student athletes with the most comprehensive package of healthcare services,” said orthopaedic surgeon Marc Galloway, Mercy Health’s sports medicine program chair and head team physician for the Cincinnati Bengals.

That package includes:

• a certified athletic trainer to serve as the primary athletic trainer for the schools
• a team physician
• pre-season sports physicals
• priority appointments for injured athletes
• Saturday walk-in clinics through the fall sports season
• the Sportsmetrics(tm) ACL injury prevention program
• baseline lower extremity testing
• concussion testing to determine when concussed athletes are safe to return to play
• heart screenings

mCORE will work directly with Mercy Health’s partner high schools to allow parents to schedule testing appointments for their student athletes during the school day. Tests take about 15 minutes and there is a $75 charge for the test, payable online or through FSA/HSA accounts. mCore will communicate positive test results to the parents and the school within days of testing and refer student athletes with a positive test to a cardiologist for further testing.

The Mercy Health Foundation will work closely with the mCORE Foundation to provide financial need- based assistance to uninsured or under-insured student athletes to ensure they have the heart screenings.

Mercy Health is the source for the most comprehensive sports medicine care in Cincinnati, with an easily accessible network of healthcare professionals providing the most modern care available for athletes of all levels; athletic trainer coverage for over 30 local high schools and colleges, multiple club sports and performing arts organizations, including the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Red Hawks and the Cincinnati Ballet; outpatient rehabilitation with special attention to restoring function; injury prevention training; performance training and an ongoing commitment to education and research.

mCORE partners with over 160 High Schools, along with being the Heart Screening Partner to Licking Memorial Hospital’s “Heart to Play” program, providing EKG and ECHO screenings, CPR/AED Training and adult wellness programs.