Articles

John R. Schurman II, MD, has a favorite saying when he talks about the Via Christi Joint Replacement Center: “Every patient is special,” he says, “but there’s nothing special about the process.”

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more lives than all forms of cancer combined. With cardiovascular disease on the rise, the importance of local, highly accessible cardiovascular care increases significantly. Much more than just being local and visible, Heartland Cardiology understands the need to develop relationships through authenticity and to partner with the community through innovation in the delivery of outstanding care.

On Feb. 6 — Go Red Day — we drew attention to heart disease, the leading cause of death for women. About one in three women dies from heart disease.1

Health care is confusing. Hospitalization is hard. No one disputes this — we’d all rather be healthy than sick.

For patients, visiting a hospital can be overwhelming. In addition to dealing with the reality of a disease or procedure, they must schedule follow-up appointments, fill out paperwork and — sometimes — make life-changing decisions, all in an unfamiliar and stressful environment.

A new device is now available that offers more patients who have mitral valve regurgitation a treatment option that doesn’t require open-heart surgery. Mitral valve regurgitation is the most common heart valve problem, and until recently, the only way to repair mitral valves was through open-heart surgery.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder — not a disease — characterized by repeated seizures. Epilepsy affects people of all ages, races and ethnicities, and is the fourth most common neurological disorder in the United States. Only migraine, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease occur more frequently. Epilepsy affects 65 million people worldwide.

Despite the best efforts of researchers and clinicians, end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) remains a growing problem in the United States. A recent United States Renal Data System (USRDS) report reveals that more than 570,000 Americans have ESKD. Of these patients, nearly 400,000 are on dialysis, with the remainder having a working kidney transplant.

Prostate cancer is a confounding disease. It demonstrates a remarkable spectrum of tumor behavior. Low-risk cancer may be indolent and take 20 years to cause death.