V. Antoine Keller, M.D., a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, along with the nonprofit Heart-Sense and Baton Rouge General Medical Center, is leading an initiative to proactively address healthcare disparities in heart valve diagnosis and treatment in southern Louisiana. A core goal of his initiative is to give patients in impoverished areas and patients in racial and ethnic minority groups the opportunity to receive equitable access to timely diagnosis and treatment for their valvular heart disease. By bringing wellness educational resources and advanced point-of-care technology to people with limited access to specialists, Heart-Sense aims to reduce barriers to access for many people with chronic conditions, before they become irreversible.
This year, more than 5 million Americans will be diagnosed with Heart Valve Disease. All too often, for Black patients with certain forms of the disease this can be a death sentence, with patients from minority communities facing significantly higher mortality rates than their white counterparts. The most common form of this disease is aortic […]