News

Contact: Sarah Bello

Dr. Diana Rinkevich is the medical director of the CMH-OHSU Health Cardiology Clinic and the Cardiac Rehab Program. She is also an associate professor of medicine at OHSU.

Q: How long have you worked at CMH?

A: Almost 14 years – since October 2010. This partnership between CMH under the leadership of CEO Erik Thorsen and the vision and support of the board, hoping to bring state-of-the-art medical services to the local community, brought me here. This was an initiative of OHSU’s cardiology clinic, today the OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Sanjiv Kaul and Dr. Joaquin Cigarroa, director of the institute.

Q: What does your job entail?

A: On top of my administrative responsibilities as director of the CMH-OHSU Health Cardiology Clinic and overseeing the professional development and responsibilities of our providers, over the last 14 years I have overseen the implementation of all ambulatory services. This includes cardiac consultation for established cardiac conditions and for prevention of cardiovascular disease, as well as a device clinic, where we interrogate cardiac devices like pacemakers, and established follow-up clinics like the anticoagulation clinic, heart failure clinic, HTN clinic and so on. I am also responsible of overseeing other ancillary services, like the cardiology imaging and stress tests. We are accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, a designation given only to the echocardiography labs that pass the most rigorous standards as dictated by the American Society of Echocardiography.

We also provide inpatient and same-day admission services with cardiology consultations, special procedures like TEE, a modality used to see special abnormalities of the heart, and cardioversion, a modality that we use to resynchronize the heart when certain arrhythmias are present like atrial fibrillation.

Most recently, we have started to implant devices like certain types of pacemakers here at CMH. All these procedures that we offer today at CMH eliminate the need for patients to travel a long distance to seek cardiac care.

Our partnership with OHSU allows us to refer patients for other procedures that cannot yet be done at CMH, like cardiac catheterizations, as well as to our subspecialty clinics at OHSU, like advanced heart failure patients who might be a candidate for heart transplants and so on.

Q: February is American Heart Month. Why is Heart Month important?

A: This is the month when we want to bring up awareness about heart disease and ways to prevent it. Heart disease is the top killer of adult women and men.

However, more than half of people in the U.S. (51%) do not know that heart disease is the leading cause of death, according to a recent survey done on behalf of the American Heart Association. Heart disease has now been the leading cause of death in this country for 100 years.

I would like to share some shocking facts:

• Almost 700,000 people died of heart disease in the U.S. in 2023. To put this into context, this represents more than 2,500 deaths from cardiovascular disease a day.
• On average, someone dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds in the U.S.
• Almost 800,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke.

The most common forms of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and strokes, are provoked by a buildup of plaques in the vessels that can eventually provoke a heart attack in some instances followed by heart failure. Or, in the case of strokes, some buildup of plaques in the brain are preventable.

Although we cannot modify our genetic predisposition or the fact that we are aging, we can have control of the risk factors causing early cardiovascular disease like smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity. We can slow down the process/initiation of the disease even if we have a strong family history by being aware of the ways to prevent it.

The first step toward reducing any risk factor for cardiovascular disease is awareness.

For example: High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke, and yet with proper treatment and management it can be controlled and your risk for cardiovascular disease can be greatly reduced.

Q: How does the CMH-OHSU Health Cardiology Clinic help readers take care of their heart health?

A: For people with established heart diseases and based on the kind of heart disease, we specifically treat the condition. For example, for a patient with heart failure, we will make sure that the patient receives state-of-the-art treatment, from medications to procedures.

For patients who do not have an established heart disease, we want to make sure we slow down or prevent the development of heart disease by education and treatment of all risk factors for cardiovascular disease and heart failure.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for listeners on how to improve their heart health?

A: Definitely. As mentioned, heart disease is in part a preventable disease. Patients should be educated about the risk factors and if they have any, they should discuss risk factors with their primary care physician first, who will decide if more expert consultation is needed.

Another recommendation is lifestyle modification to help treat and/or prevent disease, like regular exercise – at least 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walks at least five times a week – or any cardio exercise, like swimming, biking and so on.

Also, having a healthy diet that includes low sodium, low carbs, low sugar and is rich in vegetables, fish, fruit and fiber. Avoid smoking and keep a healthy weight.

Some good news:

• Since 1950, death rates from cardiovascular disease have declined by 60%. The rates have fluctuated over the years and have recently trended upward though, we need to investigate why.
• The number of people in the U.S. dying of a heart attack each year has dropped from one in two in the 1950s to now one in 8.5.
• Strokes were first ranked as the third leading cause of death in 1938. However, strokes now rank as the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S.
• Cigarette smoking has fallen dramatically from more than 40% of U.S. adults smoking in the mid-1960s to about 11% today.

Q: Is there anything else that readers should know?

A: I would like to remind everyone that we are here to help. This program was created almost 14 years ago to help the local population with any cardiac condition or risk factors. We are here to serve.

We will continue to work hard in expanding our services, so you don’t need to travel long distances to get cardiac care far away from home.

If you would like to know more about heart disease and ways to prevent it, I would recommend checking the American Heart Association website. This year, this volunteer and evidence-based organization celebrates its 100th anniversary and is a great resource of information.