At Pacific Vascular and Futura we are acutely aware of controversial issues surrounding screening the general public for disease when no symptoms are present. Medical screening can be a controversial subject and has received extensive coverage in the media, mostly due to cost-effectiveness and further testing issues. To remain current on the subject, we study ongoing published research and have conducted internal research into the effectiveness of vascular screening.
What we do know from these studies is that vascular screening, applied to the right individuals, can accurately detect circulatory defects, before there are symptoms. This provides the opportunity to take preventative medical action before potentially catastrophic symptoms occur (for example stroke or aneurysm rupture). The good news is that a high-risk population can be easily identified (see Risk Calculator) where screening is effective and warranted.
The problem with screening everyone for underlying vascular defects, is not only the cost incurred by individuals and the healthcare system for screening studies with very little chance of detecting anything significant, it is also the potential for misidentification of defects or disease that is not really present, i.e. seeing problems that are not there (see False Positives). Even though the probability of this type of mistake is rare, especially with the strict internal controls and high degree of training of medical staff within the Futura program (see Quality Assurance for Quality Assurance Correlation Study detail), the risk is real that an individual could be alerted to a potential false problem and sent for further medical testing.
Further testing, especially radiographic (x-ray) studies and invasive procedures, are not only anxiety causing and a potentially wasted cost, there is also some real risk of complications present in additional testing procedures. However, if individuals are ruled out as being low-risk, before participating in a screening, then they would not be screened and would not be subjected to the potential of further testing.
We started Futura Health Screening based on our experience in diagnostic testing for physicians and hospitals where we saw too much untreated vascular disease that could have been avoided if the individual had only known earlier. Unfortunately, our medical system is set up on a diagnostic basis (see “What is a screening exam? How is it different from a diagnostic exam?”) for insurance reimbursement, which means many vascular diseases are only detected when symptoms are catastrophic events, e.g. stroke (see carotid artery disease) or aneurysm rupture (see AAA),
We also knew that we could detect the underlying defects and disease that leads to these types of catastrophic medical events, before symptoms were present, by screening. We also believed that this screening program needed to be effective and affordable for the general public, especially since screening is not typically covered by insurance. To accomplish this goal, we focused screening only on high-risk populations, which is the reason we provide a pre-screening Risk Calculator and will ask you certain questions on family history and health factors before encouraging you to proceed with a screening.
Note: Futura asks each potential participant a number of questions before proceeding, to make sure that vascular disease screening is appropriate. This important step assures that you are only screened if you are determined to be at some degree of risk. However, if you are at low risk for vascular disease, and would still like to participate in screening, you will be allowed to schedule an exam.
Most often, screening for vascular disease, without the need to do so, can result in unnecessary costs. A bigger concern is that a screening test can result in unnecessary further tests as described above.
