The focus of mainstream cardiovascular medicine has been to improve invasive techniques such as coronary artery stents and bypass surgery. Although these therapies are often standard treatment recommendations in our practice, at Pacific Cardiology our emphasis is Preventative Cardiology.

Dr. Gregg Yamada, co-founder of Pacific Cardiology, believes that ‘Prevention is the most important treatment of heart disease’.
Although controversial, in Dr. Yamada’s opinion, “The focus of cardiology over the next decade must be to reduce the need for angioplasty and bypass surgery in addition to improving these techniques”. Dr. Yamada notes that heart institutions and physicians are judged by the number of procedures they perform, rather than the number of procedures they prevent.

According to Dr. Yamada, who has been performing angioplasty for nearly two decades, and has been board certified in 4 different subspecialties of cardiology, “Our focus should be to do our best to prevent a heart attack or the need for bypass surgery or angioplasty”.

Dr. Yamada believes that the majority of angioplasty and bypass surgery procedures could be avoided if we follow a strategy of cardiac prevention. He notes that, “Patients must take it upon themselves to determine if a preventative approach is of value to them. However, waiting for symptoms to develop is far too late” .