800 Metro People to Attend Baptist's Annual Heart Day and View the First U. S. Authorized All-Digital Cardio X-Ray Imaging System

Jackson, Miss. - February 6, 2003 - Baptist Heart Services will hold its fifth annual Heart Day on Saturday, February 8, 2003 from 7:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. on the campus of Baptist Medical Center, 1225 N. State Street, Jackson, Miss. Eight-hundred people are pre-registered for the event.

Services to be offered include Electrocardiogram (EKG); Blood Chemistry Profile; Triglyceride and Cholesterol testing; Cardiac Risk Analysis and Stroke/Hypertension screening. In addition, information will be available about heart topics, and health professionals will be on hand to answer questions. For a $25 fee, participants will take advantage of more than $300 worth of heart tests. On last year's Heart Day, approximately 500 people went through the program, which found almost 70 percent of those participants were at risk for heart disease and other circulatory system disorders.

"February is National Heart Month; so we are using this opportunity to make people more aware of the need to catch heart disease early. We hope this day will not only give them an analysis of their cardiac health, but explain to participants the importance of adopting healthy habits to take care of their heart," said Steve Jackson, vice president of Baptist Clinical and Ambulatory Care.

Participants will also tour Baptist Heart Services' new all-digital cath lab room, which was installed this past fall. The room is equipped with the GE Innova ä 2000 all-digital cardiovascular imaging system. It is a revolutionary system, which allows cardiologists to view hard-to-see blood vessels with exceptional clarity under even the most difficult conditions. The Innova 2000 is used in both diagnostic cardiac angiograms and cardiac interventions such as angioplasty and stent procedures.

"The addition of this state of the art equipment is an asset to our physicians and our patients with the enhanced image quality," said Judy Henderson, RN, Cardiovascular Diagnostics director.

The Innova 2000, from GE Medical Systems, utilizes GE's breakthrough Revolution digital detector, which replaces conventional x-ray imaging components along with their artifacts and distortions for crisper, cleaner, clearer images. The Revolution ä digital detector reads x-rays passing through the patient's body, creating an almost instantaneous image on a high-resolution monitor. Images from the GE Innova 2000 are viewed, networked and archived electronically in a totally filmless fashion.

For people that are not able to attend this year's Heart Day, they can call the Baptist Health Line at 948-6262 or 1-800-948-6262 to reserve a spot for "Every Day is Heart Day at Baptist." In 2002, Baptist had approximately 2,000 people that went through Every Day Heart Day, which is an ongoing screening program at Baptist.

For additional information about the Innova 2000, visit the GE Medical Systems web site at the following address: http://www.gemedicalsystems.com/rad/xr/cardiology/products/msxinnova.html

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