HYDERABAD : On the occasion of World Heart Day, Apollo Hospitals launched a novel programme called the ‘Healthy Heart Challenge’. As a part of the program people were encouraged to undergo complete screening and those suffering with heart ailments will suggested lifestyle modifications and appropriate management methods. The unique feature of this programme is that if a person certified by the hospital as healthy, suffers a heart attack during the year, Apollo Hospitals will treat him for free.
The programme is being introduced to increase awareness and to educate the community that heart diseases are preventable. The hospitals also organised Healthy Heart walk from it Hyderguda branch to Basheerbagh flyover to mark the World Heart Day. Dr. Surya Prakash Rao, head of department of Cardiology, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda, said 80 per cent of premature deaths from heart disease could be avoided if risk factors like unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco usage could be controlled. He added that in the last two decades the cardiac patients’ profile has changed for worse.