Healthy Heart Check | Student Heart Screening Program

Healthy Heart Check Program
Beaumont offers heart checks to high school students. Every year high school students die from sudden cardiac arrest. These deaths can be due to abnormal heart structure or abnormal rhythms that can lead to cardiac arrest. To help young people detect their risk for sudden cardiac arrest, Healthy Heart Check includes the following:

• a medical history
• a physical examination by a cardiologist
• a blood pressure check
• an electrocardiogram or ECG
• echocardiogram, if indicated

These heart checks normally cost approximately $1,000 each and are generally not included in the routine physical required before participating in school sports programs. 

The program is designed for students ages 13 – 18 and in high school. We recognize there is a desire by some parents for testing to begin at an earlier age, although early screening might pick up some conduction and rhythm problems, some structural abnormalities, especially abnormal heart muscle thickening (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), the most common cause of sudden death in the U.S., do not become apparent until later in adolescence and would be missed if screening is performed in younger students.

Visit our frequently asked questions to learn more about the program and our age criteria.

Here are some statistics on the Healthy Heart Check program since it began in May 2007: 

• 7,920 kids in Michigan have been screened
• 754 needed some sort of follow up with a doctor
• 49 were advised to stop sports until they follow up with a cardiologist
• 4 have been found with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most serious of all heart issues we are trying to detect

Beaumont holds free community screenings on an ongoing basis or you can register for a student heart check at Ernst Cardiovascular Center at Beaumont, Royal Oak for $25. 

To make an appointment, call 800-328-8542.

For more information, contact Monique Brand, Program Director, 248-898-4302.