A previous setup by Dr. Janine Eckstein to do her heart valve checks (submitted photo)

By Ben Tompkins

Farmer Health

Saskatoon doctor checking hearts in Tisdale

Sep 17, 2024 | 12:00 PM

September 16 – 20 is Heart Valve Disease Awareness Week and a Saskatoon-based cardiologist is coming to the northeast to spread said awareness.

Janine Eckstein is in Tisdale today (Tuesday) and beginning at 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. she will be checking hearts at a farm auction.

This way, busy farmers whose harvest is likely in full swing, will have the opportunity to get checked out at no cost and without any travel or medical appointment.

“I’m doing it to make it more accessible for these farmers who may work 20 hours a day and just can’t find the time to go to their family doctors. I just listen with a stethoscope and check for heart murmurs, as they are a sign that one or more of the valves of the heart have become narrow or leaky,” Eckstein said.

“Heart valve disease, if it is there, can be very subtle for symptoms, which a lot of people just write off. As you’re getting older, it can cause a bit of decreased exercise tolerance, shortness of breath, and/or chest discomfort. People usually just shrug these things off because they just associate it with getting older or they don’t have the time to go get checked out.”

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Over one million Canadians are affected by heart valve disease, with Saskatchewan, specifically rural, having some of the highest pickup rates of heart murmurs in the country.

Eckstein believes this is due to the lack of availability and access to family physicians, who are quite busy as well.

With how treatable the disease has become, Eckstein knows how important it is to get these people checked.

Dr. Eckstein checking a patient for Heart Valve Disease (submitted photo)

“It used to only be treated with open heart surgery, but now there’s minimally invasive surgery or options that don’t have as long of a recovery time and are available to people even into their 90s,” she told northeastNOW.

“The stethoscope check is the first step and then if I detect any murmurs, I will arrange for people to get an ultrasound of their heart. Overall, for a quick screening test that takes about five minutes of their time, it can really change their quality of life or prevent them from dying. It’s really important to pick it up early before you get sick, so we can look into the next steps and go from there.”

Eckstein grew up on a farm and has done similar checks in different areas of the northeast before.

Those have been attended well and people have said to her that they never would have done these checks, had she not been in the area.

She mentioned that’s one of the main reasons she continues to come back, along with being supported by Heart Valve Voice Canada.

“I’m really passionate about this because I’ve seen too many people that have left this and just had those subtle symptoms and just not thought about it, and then they get really, really sick and they end in the hospital with heart failure,” Eckstein said.

“My goal is to catch people up front so I don’t have to see those many people that are as sick in the hospital. It’s way better if I catch people earlier and pick it up, and farming communities do have a special place in my heart because my grandparents had a farm and my mom farmed for a very long time, so it’s important to me for sure.”

Eckstein is also a board member of Heart Valve Voice Canada, as well as the Chair of the Awareness and Education Committee of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Valve Disease Working Group.

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