Schools
Bill Screening Student Athletes for Cardiac Trouble Prescribes EKGs as Needed
Physical checkup and family medical histories help determine when further tests are necessary.
While electrocardiograms are becoming more routine as part of the checkup given to student athletes, they're not mandatory under a bill meant to identify heart problems in junior jocks in the sixth through 12th grades.
What the Scholastic Student-Athlete Safety Act S-1912 does require is that students who want to make the team have a physical and answer questions about their health history. Those whose exams or histories indicate a need for an EKG would receive one.
The Senate passed the bill in February; the Assembly, in March.
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While some doctors advocate EKGs for all student athletes, a task force formed by the Legislature to explore the issue determined that the tests shouldn’t be a requirement.
Task force member Dr. Louis E. Teichholz, a cardiologist, said the bill reflects the latest thinking in medical science. It requires doctors, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants who give kids physicals to complete professional development that will bring them up to date about risks to athletes’ hearts.
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“A lot of times it’s a family physician who does not know about the diseases we’re looking for,” Teichholz said.
Task force chairman Dr. Stephen G. Rice said it’s important that doctors performing the exams update their knowledge of student cardiac health, rather than rely just on information they learned in medical school.
The state would also require that a pamphlet about heart risks be distributed to student athletes and their families.
Teichholz said that understanding the health histories of both the students and their families is a major component of the legislation. Doctors increasingly have recognized the importance of family medical history in assessing a student’s hereditary risk for heart problems.
The bill stopped short of requiring EKGs, a step that some doctors and families had supported.
“If you go into just about every major cardiology journal, every year there are pro and con” articles on whether to make EKGs mandatory, Teichholz said.
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