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Author: Jake Jackson

Have You Heard… Paps Are Out! Cervical Screening Tests Are In

Posted on by Jake Jackson

And you may be able to do it yourself…

What is a cervical screening test?

Pap smears looked for abnormal cells in the cervix (the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina). A cervical screening test looks for HPV – the human papillomavirus – aka the ‘wart virus’ – the infection that causes these cells to change and is the cause of almost all cervical cancers.

Sometimes these abnormal cells can develop into cervical cancer, usually over time (10-15 years).

The way we collect a sample is the same so you won’t notice a difference at your appointment – however, you may be eligible to do it yourself!

Regular Cervical Screening Tests can prevent around 90% of cervical cancers.

What is HPV and how did I get it?

  • HPV is transmitted through sexual activity and is very common. Most people who have ever been sexually active (80%) will have an HPV infection sometime in their life. It’s like the common cold for anyone who has ever had sex.
  • The HPV infection can remain inactive in your body for a long time, so it can be difficult to know when you were infected, or who infected you.
  • For most people, the body can clear the infection on its own, but it may take 1-2 years.
  • If the HPV infection doesn’t clear up, it can cause cervical cells to change. If left untreated, these abnormal cells may develop into cervical cancer.

When should I have a cervical screening test?

Anyone aged 25-74 with a cervix who has ever been sexually active should have a cervical screening test. 

  • This should happen every 5 years if the results are normal.
  • Start cervical screening when you turn 25.
  • You will be offered an ‘exit’ test between the ages of 70 and 74.

From 1 July 2022, you have the option of:

  • Having a clinician take a sample for you, or
  • Taking your own sample*

It is important to remember that screening tests are for people without symptoms. If you have symptoms such as abnormal discharge, irregular bleeding, bleeding or pain during sex, this needs to be discussed with your doctor as tests to investigate symptoms are often different.

What happens if I have HPV?

Depending on the type of HPV you have and whether or not your cervical cells appear abnormal, you will either be asked to repeat the test in 12 months (keeping in mind most immune systems may clear an infection) or be referred for other tests.

What happens if I have a normal test result?

You will be advised to do another screening test in 5 years. Screening is repeated every 5 years between the ages of 25-74 for people who have normal test results. 

Where can I find more information:

Book an appointment to meet with one of our doctors, we’d be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about cervical screening or symptoms you may be concerned about.

You can also find more information about the national cervical screening programme at www.health.gov.au/ncsp

* Some people may not be able to do self-collection. This includes:

  • anyone with symptoms suggestive of cervical cancer.
  • anyone undergoing test or cure of treatment for a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL).
  • Anyone who has been treated for a glandular abnormality, including adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS).
  • Anyone who has been exposed to diethylstilbestrol (DES) in utero.

Home BP monitoring

Posted on by Jake Jackson

How to correctly measure your blood pressure at home

Doctors often measure a patient’s blood pressure in the clinic. However, this is only a snapshot really, and it’s better to seek an average. That’s where a patient measuring their own blood pressure at home, provided it’s done correctly, can be very helpful. After reading this article, hopefully, the next time your GP says “you should get a few measurements at home” – you’ll know exactly what to do. You got this!

Stop – High blood pressure – why care? 

High blood pressure generally puts your whole body, including your heart, under extra stress. Over time, that stress wears your whole body out, prematurely and various organs such as your heart, kidneys, brain and vision can deteriorate. Yet often having high blood pressure isn’t something you’ll know about since it doesn’t usually cause any symptoms. That’s why it’s useful to test it, and here – we tell you how to do this yourself at home. 

When to test

Morning and evening, before any medications, food or exercise. Measure it for seven consecutive days. Sit down for 5 minutes to rest, before you start measuring. 

Do not smoke or drink caffeine for at least 30 minutes before measuring your blood pressure. 

How to test

Firstly, use a validated device. A reliable list of such recommended devices can be found here – https://bihsoc.org/bp-monitors/

Make sure you’re in a comfortable position with your arm roughly at the height of your heart, and your back and arm well supported. The blood pressure cuff needs to be the appropriate size (there are markings usually on the cuff to guide this) and placed on your bare arm. 

Then, when you measure your blood pressure, do it once, wait 1 minute and do it again. This means that you’ll have four measurements per day. 

Each time, your blood pressure machine will give you a high number and a lower number. The high number is your systolic pressure (when your heart contracts) and your diastolic blood pressure (when your heart relaxes). Record both numbers.  

What to do with your measurements

After 7 days, by collecting 4 measurements a day (two in the morning, two in the evening) you would have collected 28 measurements. Now discard the first day (that’s considered a practice day!), and average out the measurements of the remaining 6 days (24 measurements in total). Relay that information to your doctor. 

We’ve created a simple spreadsheet that helps you to record this information and calculates the average for you. You can find that here Home Blood Pressure Monitoring 7 Day Average

If your average is >135/85 – you may have high blood pressure. 

The gold standard – 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring

These days, know also that measuring your blood pressure with a device that takes it automatically every 30 mins to 1 hour for 24 hours is the most accurate way of measuring your blood pressure and making decisions. This is called 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. However, if you measuring it at home, in the manner described above, that’s still very helpful in making decisions.  

If you have any questions about this article or blood pressure in general, please feel free to email us at community@atticushealth.com.au

 

Credit: The recommended technique of home blood pressure monitoring described is based on an article originally published in the Australian Family Physician journal in 2016.  That full article is thankfully available to the public and can be found here https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2016/january-february/how-to-measure-home-blood-pressure-recommendations

Diamond Kind Podcast: Episode 7 – Dr Anastasia Stephanie Rahardja

Posted on by Jake Jackson

In episode 7 of Diamond Kind Podcasts, Brett is joined by our special guest, Anastasia Stephanie Rahardja who talks about women’s health and a personal story about her father.

 

Trancription:

Floyd Gomes 0:02

We all have pressure in our lives and pressure makes diamonds. And yet, in the heat of a moment that pressure can lead to various ways that we handle a situation, either aggressively or bringing out some degree of kindness. And that’s what “Diamond Kind” is about

Brett Thiedeman 0:27

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the next episode of the Diamond Kind podcast. And just telling Nathan, who I’m with here, at the moment, it’s a little bit lonely. Without my sidekick, Dr. Floyd Gomes – missing today. He’s actually practicing in one of the clinics and so it’s gonna be me flying solo. And today we’ve got a guest. We’ve got one of our doctors, actually. Steph, from the Atticus health Hardware Lane clinic, who, yeah, who’s just started today, and I’m really excited to talk to her and yeah, for the you know, for our listeners as well to get a little bit more of an understanding about Steph and obviously, you know, we’ll talk to her about the her experiences in women’s health and get to know a little bit more about Steph and then finish off talking to her about you know, how she has overcome some pressure in her life at a specific time. And, yeah, how she came through that with kindness. Because after all, that’s the name of the of the podcast is Diamond Kind. So without further ado, I will call Steph. Nice, Steph, it’s Brett here. How you doing?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 2:10

Good. Thank you. How are you?

Brett Thiedeman 2:11

That’s good. I’m going well, thank you. Thanks for making the time today. I know you’re obviously very busy settling into your new job with Atticus health. And so thanks for making the time to have a quick chat on the podcast with us today.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 2:27

Yeah, no worries. It’s nice to be on your podcast. Yeah, I haven’t done one of these before.

Brett Thiedeman 2:32

Yeah, so I’m pretty new to it myself. I only started doing these last year. So ya know, it’s it’s a bit of fun and yeah, hopefully our audience you know, we’ll get get to know you a little bit better and you know what you do and so maybe if we could start off stuff, you know, just tell us a little a little bit about you like where have you come from and you could just give the listeners yeah, a chance to get to know you a little bit better.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 3:01

Yeah, sure. So I have just started working at the hardware Lane clinic, but I’ve just moved across from working in Sunbury. So I’ve been I was working in Sunbury for the last three years but I’m somewhat local to central Melbourne so I’m actually living in North Melbourne so it’s been really nice. Moving across to hardware lane and being able to walk to work has been exceptional. I know what all the fuss is about now. But I am originally from New Zealand and I moved across over high school, went to Melbourne Uni lived in college during my time there and then did my residency years in Melbourne before training to be a GP.

Brett Thiedeman 3:57

Awesome Yeah. And how do you go how’s it living in the city steph? What’s the what’s the vibe like in the city?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 4:05

It’s fantastic. I love it. it’s definitely coming back and one of the really nice things about being on hardware lane is that you get to see all the cool cafes and restaurants and there’s definitely a lot of life coming back to the CBD which is fantastic. Obviously I live near the Queen Vic market as well so that’s really nice and actually get to walk past it on my way to work so yeah, it’s not a boring walk either. It’s really nice. But it’s a great environment working in the city. I’m really loving it.

Brett Thiedeman 4:38

That’s awesome. And the Queen Vic market like what about is that buzzing? I haven’t been there for many years. Ah,

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 4:47

So my, I’ve gotten to call on my egg man and I get my free range eggs from him every fortnight which is great. But yeah, I think that the market seems to always be quite busy. With people buying fresh fruit veg, and I think also during winter, they put on a bit of a night market. I’m not sure if that’s on at the moment.

Brett Thiedeman 5:08

I was gonna ask that steph because I have been to that a few times, obviously not for a few years now. So I was just going to ask if you’ve been to that recently. Yeah. Have you been to it?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 5:17

I haven’t been to it recently. I have been to in previous years, but I heard from someone else at the night market is definitely on. What I can confirm, though, is that the famous donut van is still

Brett Thiedeman 5:33

Definitely my favorite jam the hot donuts.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 5:37

Yeah, that’s right. And actually noticed that Spanish doughnuts as well. Yeah, sure, but I haven’t seen that one. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. But the hot jam doughnuts definitely still there. And I noticed the other morning. It’s definitely better to get them in the mornings. When the queues much shorter.

Brett Thiedeman 5:57

Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. So tell us a little bit more about yourself steph. What are your hobbies? Like, what do you do when you’re not being a doctor now at at Hardware Lane? Yeah. What do you what do you like to do?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 6:12

Well, I liked I love to keep fit. And I love exercising. And so that’s another really good thing for me now working in Hardware Lane is my my gym is actually just in Melbourne Central. And that’s the same gym that I’ve been going to since I was a medical student. Right. I’m very loyal. Yeah. But it’s yeah, it’s very convenient. I ended up you know, going there going there after work every day now, so it’s super convenient. So I love to keep fit and exercise. I love to cook. So I love food. I’m a bit of a foodie. Yeah. So I guess it helps that the exercise of food. And I also love spending time with my two doggies. So I’ve got two fur babies called CODA and BB. Coda, the teacup size toy poodle, and BB is a black polka.

Brett Thiedeman 7:14

Oh, nice. So yeah, good. Good friends.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 7:17

They tolerate each other. They don’t play really interesting when you observed them. They never play together. Yeah. Kind of like humans. Yeah, I think they actually know that they’re in the same family. Because there have been times where we’ve been away with friends who have dogs. And these two different baby will protect each other from other dogs. So it’s quite interesting to observe them because they don’t play together and they don’t interact. Yeah. Other dogs involved. They do act like they’re in the same family. Yeah,

Brett Thiedeman 7:48

Exactly. As you said, it just sounds like you’re like humans. It’s like you’re yeah, sibling. Yeah.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 7:53

Yeah. And just like humans, they always want the toy that the other one has. So you could have the exact same ball. Yeah, one each, but they’re always going to want the one that the other dog had, just like humans, siblings.

Brett Thiedeman 8:12

And in terms of, I guess, your interests in medicine, Steph, what? If you could again, tell the listeners like what, what sort of things you’re interested in? Yeah, of course you specialise in Yeah, yeah,

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 8:28

I have a strong interest in women’s health, including anti natal pregnancy care. Fertility planning and discussions about fertility treatments. And I work a lot in the area of contraception. So by providing advice, but also I’m an implannon insertion. I’m waiting as well to be in (the course for) mirrena insertion, so hopefully, that will happen soon. And I also enjoy talking about preventative health. So trying to get to things early, to prevent those chronic health conditions from developing. You know, making sure that we are trying to live our lives in a healthy way. Talking about diet and exercise and all those good things as well. So looking at things in a holistic manner is really important to me.

Brett Thiedeman 9:29

With the preventative health, Steph, Steph, what have you seen recently, in terms of like, in the reason I asked the question is, you know, obviously the last couple of years with COVID You know, it’s meant that a lot of people aren’t coming you know, like, come to the doctor. What are your what are you what are you seeing there? Like what are your thoughts there about that and you know, other people coming back now or do you think you know that people need to be a little bit more proactive in that area?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja

10:07 Yeah, so we, I have seen a lot of people coming in who, you know, we’re checking their blood pressure and their blood pressure is quite high. And then you go back and look at, you know, how long it’s been high for. And you can’t really tell because they haven’t been in for several years, or they haven’t had their blood pressure checked for several years. And, you know, when I have asked, you know, why have we done, a lot of people will say, because, well, it was COVID. And I had no reason to come in, or I didn’t want to come in because I was scared of getting COVID. So I’ve left it. Yeah. So there is a lot of that there’s also I’ve also come across people who have postponed important procedures. So things like colonoscopy, for example. So you know, there are people who, for one reason or another should be having regular procedures or colonoscopy, for example, to to detect things like bowel cancer, who have put that off because of the pandemic. And that, you know, can have some serious consequences. Because there’s, as you know, but the earlier we find something, the earlier we can get to treating it, and the better the outcome and prognosis for that person.

Brett Thiedeman 11:29

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. I guess as a, you know, one bit of advice, definitely, what would you say? What would you say to people like right now? Yeah, as a doctor, what would you say to those type of people that you just mentioned? What, what would you say to them now?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 11:46

Yeah. I would say that there’s no better time than now to really look after your health and get to doing the things that you might have put off for the last several years. I think it’s really important that we tend to those things and make sure you get them done. So your bowel cancer screening, for example, blood pressure checks, breast screens is another one that we have seen a lot of women put off. Yeah. And also cervical screening tests, which is something that I think is really important. And and I, you know, I do a lot of cervical screening tests as well. And that’s, that’s super important for women to identify whether or not they’re at a high risk of developing cervical cancer, for example. Yeah,

Brett Thiedeman 12:37

All right now. Thanks. Thank you for that. It’s, it’s good to hear and I think, I think we’ll probably move to the to the last question. And I guess the reason for the podcast as well, Steph now, and yeah, as most of you know, the people that are listening would know that this is the diamond con podcast. And, you know, it’s really about talking to, you know, all different kinds of people and interviewing them and asking them about times in their lives, where, you know, they’ve been under a lot of pressure, and how they’ve moved through that pressure. And, you know, and come through with the, with kindness, as opposed to, you know, what they could you know, the opposite of kindness. So, would you be able to give us a time, Steph, where, you know, you have this type of pressure in your life and how you move through it?

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 13:29

Sure, Brett. Just thinking off the top of my head. There was a time where I was under a lot of personal pressure. Yeah. So, my father at one point was really unwell. And he’s okay now, because we’ve worked out what the problem is. But he was really unwell. We didn’t know what was going on at the time. There’s been lots of different medical appointments. But we found this really fantastic. Specialist. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to name them, Ken, I

Brett Thiedeman 14:09

No you probably don’t need to keep the probably the key names out of it.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 14:12

Forget the name then. Look. So my father was really unwell. And we weren’t sure what was going on. And I was at work at the time. And I received a call from a specialist who said, you know, I’ve got a father who’s really unwell. I’m worried about him. I think he’s going to be much safer being admitted to hospital. And so I actually ended up having to leave work early. I rushed out to pick him up and take them to the hospital. On my way out, I’d sort of said to my practice manager, you know, because I felt awful about the patients that I had still scheduled to see in the afternoon. So I sort of Can you organize my appointments and just offer them a telehealth appointment, I’ll be able to give them a call at some point when dad has stabilized. So anyway I rushed out of work that day went to pick up dad going to the hospital. We were there for, you know, a few hours getting him admitted. And then he was stabilized. And then after, you know, I hadn’t forgotten my patients, I went out to my car, I had my laptop with me. And I sat there in the car. And I was doing the telehealth appointments. And in one of those telehealth appointments, one of my patients actually told me that her mother had just had her transplant surgery. And I also knew her mother as a patient. And I haven’t to know which hospital she would have been at for the surgery. And so I, you know, I knew that dad was was now admitted he had the nurses there, who were fantastic. And taking care of him, I was still under that personal pressure of not really knowing what was happening or what what this is all about. But I also wanted to go and see this patient who had had her surgery, because I knew that she had just gone through such a big procedure. And there she was in the hospital on her own, and it was during the pandemic. So I knew that her visit, visitors would have been really restricted and limited. And, you know, with transplant surgery, these patients are often there for a long time. And in fact, she was there for months. And sometimes that can be months without seeing a familiar face and not having the familiarity of being home. So, you know, I thought what can I do? That’d be nice thing for us. So I thought, Well, I’m gonna go across the road because the hospital happened to be across the road from where my dad was. And so I went to go and visit her. And so, you know, I was under a lot of personal pressure at that time, but it still felt like a small thing for me to walk across the road and visit her but she was so surprised to see me there. And I think the staff were surprised too when she told them Oh, this is not a family member. This is actually my GP. And so to see her light up like that was well worth it.

Brett Thiedeman 17:23

Wow, what an example steph. You know, definitely a time you know, when you as you said you were under that personal pressure, and you know, you were still able to Yeah, just that your ability to think of someone else steph at that time. You know, when you were going through that pressure, so yeah, I guess for the listeners out there, you know, you can be rest assured that yeah, if you if you are to come into the Atticus health hardware lane clinic, you’ll be well looked after. By a kind doctor. Yeah, so, thanks for sharing that steph. That is a that’s a that’s a great example. And yeah, and well done to you as well. It’s a great example of, you know, being under pressure and, and coming through it with kindness and being able to think about other people as well. So yeah, thanks. Yeah, like, thank thanks for your for your time. And, you know, welcome again to Atticus health. We’re really, like excited to have you as part of the group as well. And I’m sure you’re going to do really well in your job. So we look forward to it. Look forward to catching up with you soon.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 18:37

Great. Thanks a lot. Brett. Really good speaking to you. And thanks for having me on your podcast.

Brett Thiedeman 18:42

Yeah. Thanks for Thanks for Thanks for being this being your first time on the on the podcast as well. And yeah, and giving it a go to. That was good fun.

Dr Stephanie Rahardja 18:52

All right. Thanks. Thanks, Brett. Bye.

Brett Thiedeman 19:03

Wow, okay, that was yeah, a great example by Steph and thank you, everybody for listening to this episode of the Diamond Kind podcast, hopefully, hopefully, Floyd can return some time for the next one. And if not, Floyd, I hope if you’re listening, I know you listen at some time, but hopefully, I’ve done a good job on my own. So yeah, thanks again to Steph. That was a really good opportunity to speak to Steph and to learn a little bit more about her. And thank you to the listeners and we will speak to you again soon. Thanks, bye

e15 x Kanga Esports

Posted on by Jake Jackson

e15 backed up its Comic-Con appearance by hosting an esports event in collaboration with our sponsored esports team Kanga Esports. Our event was the first major esports event in the south-east, a major accomplishment for all involved. We had participants who travelled from far and wide, some travelling for over an hour from within Victoria.

e15’s breakthrough in the gaming scene represents a great stride in our goal to create a cultural shift away from highly caffeinated drinks.

After the UK government banned under 16s purchasing energy drinks as a “precautionary approach to mitigate the potential negative effects associated with their excessive consumption by children”, the gaming community has slowly begun to realise the effects excessive amounts of caffeine can have on our bodies. This is why events like e15 x Kanga Esports can go a long way. With this platform that we are creating for ourselves, we are slowly allowing e15, a solid foundation on which to stand.

e15 Takes On Oz Comic-Con

Posted on by Jake Jackson

Oz Comic-Con was held over the weekend of June 11-12. Two days of absolute ecstasy. Emotions ran high as we saw all our favourite movie and comic characters.

But we weren’t there to squeal with excitement, we were there to showcase e15 to the world.

During day 1 we went through around 35 out of our 45 cases of e15. There are 12 bottles per case. Meaning we had around 420 bottles of Blood Orange Zing e15 circulating Comic-Con throughout the day! Quite an impressive stat when you take into consideration the size and amount of time our drink has been around.

An impressive first day left us scrambling to find more cases of e15 back at our headquarters in Highett. We loaded up another 25 and returned to Comic-Con for day 2! To our surprise, day 2 did not hold back. It was just as busy as day 1 and we found ourselves handing e15 drinks out left, right and centre.

With the reviews taken from Comic-Con, we were able to truly see what people think of e15. This will help us in the future with research and development.

In total from the event, we took over 370 email addresses. From this our army of e15 warriors has begun to grow.

The future looks promising, and with e15 drink fridges now being installed in all Atticus clinics in Victoria, it will soon be much more accessible.

If you haven’t yet tried the e15 drink, keep an eye out for it in our local Atticus Health clinic! We’d love to know what you think about it!

 

e15

A Moment To Achieve Detail

Posted on by Jake Jackson

For many years now, I’ve found myself in the position of being a GP and manager. These two roles require different skills, but there is a crossover. I’d like to discuss one aspect of that crossover that I have found – time.  

In my upskilling as a manager, I stumbled across the teachings of the doyen of management, Peter Drucker. In his book, “The Effective Executive”, I was introduced to the idea that if you need to get something really done, you need to close the door and focus on that activity, for however long it takes sometimes until real progress is made. Conversely, if you keep getting interrupted, or set aside fifteen minutes a day for four days to do something, you take time to get started, and time to finish off and less progress is made. That is, fifteen minutes times four does not equal one hour. And that one solid hour straight is worth perhaps more than this if ample focus is given throughout.  I’ve found this to be very true. 

Coming back to general practice, I consider what it is we typically do in our primary care system in Australia. We see patients for brief spurts, less than ten minutes sometimes. We may fix this and fix that, but not as often do we sit down to go through things in a more detailed way. This is lacking and it has its consequences with both patient and GP remaining stuck in a reactive quick-fix model. It’s full of churn. A false economy. As Peter Drucker would have it, the value of all of these fragmented short sessions is less than the whole. 

As Atticus Health progresses, across the board, we are moving in a direction in which we seek to really know our patients and their needs, in a deeper sense. To truly connect, understand and provide personalised education. Sometimes this will require a longer or extended consultation. I’d implore you to take it. Your experience going through everything in detail with a doctor, who hopefully is focused and really cares, will be far more valuable.  

Over the last few months, as a company, we’ve had to make decisions about our direction, and we’ve chosen a path that supports our patient interactions to be more meaningful, unrushed and therefore effective. We also look forward to providing useful health education at an Atticus community level through digital and physical resources, and at in-person events.  

Ultimately, there is a lot of dedicated work in the background at Atticus, occurring to make sure that we can help all our patients more and more, reliably, in the future.  I am excited to be on that journey with you.

HotDoc Mobile

Posted on by Jake Jackson

Over the past 6 months, we’ve been thinking about ways to elevate your experience with Atticus Health.

Patients can book appointments online & check-in on your mobile phone

Using HotDoc Online Bookings, patients can book when they want, even after-hours, and you don’t have to wait on hold. You can also view your doctor’s full calendar, which our patients are saying is a huge benefit. 

We’ve learnt that 1 in 2 patients prefer to check-in online, so we’ve introduced Mobile Check-In which allows you to check-in for your appointment on your mobile phone.

How do I use the app to check-in?

  • Patients with the HotDoc app will receive a push notification before their appointment letting them know to ‘Tap here to check-in’.
  • When you arrive you can click Check-In Now in the Appointments tab.
  • The app will ask for permission to access your location – allow it.
  • Confirm your surname, DOB and gender for the booking then click ‘Check-In Now’

As we look to the future of healthcare, there are learnings to take away and changes to make as we look to support all current and future patients. If you’d like to share your thoughts or have any questions, we’d welcome hearing from you.

Holter Monitoring Now Available

Posted on by Jake Jackson

A Holter monitor is a small, battery-powered medical device that measures your heart’s activity, such as rate and rhythm. Your doctor may ask you to use one if they need more information about how your heart functions than a routine electrocardiogram (ECG) can give them.

You wear the Holter monitor for 12 to 48 hours as you go about your normal daily routine. This device has electrodes and electrical leads exactly like a regular ECG, but it has fewer leads. It can pick up not only your heart’s rate and rhythm, but also signs of reduced blood flow to different parts of the heart muscle as well as irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias.

If you’re already being treated for heart problems, wearing your monitor can help your doctor determine if your medicine is working or if changes need to be made. It can also help them to see why you might be experiencing other symptoms of irregular heartbeat, such as dizziness, faintness, or feeling like your heart is racing or skipping a beat.

After the recommended testing time frame has passed, you’ll return to your doctor’s office to have the Holter monitor removed. Your doctor will read your activity journal and analyse the results of the monitor in conjunction with our in-house Cardiologist – Dr Cheng Yee Goh. Depending on the results of the test, you may need to undergo further testing before a diagnosis is made. Wearing a Holter monitor is painless and one of the best ways to identify potential heart problems or other issues.

Holter Monitoring Now Available at Hamilton Island,  Hardware Lane, Bangholme, Hastings & Carrum

Living In the Moment and Appreciating Life

Posted on by Jake Jackson

For the first time in almost two years, we were fortunate to return to the skies and visit our clinic on Hamilton Island. On arrival at the airport, we were greeted by our receptionist, Tikqua, who gave us a crash course in driving the Buggy, our mode of transport for the next three days, and from here it was off to the clinic.

A couple of the highlights from our short trip were seeing a number of Victorians on Hamilton Island. As we approached the clinic for the first time during our short stay, we noticed a family of four, Mum, Dad and two young children taking pictures in front of the Atticus Health sign and the kids were making reference to Atticus Health. This moment was spoken about in every conversation by Floyd hereafter, even since we got back, which was four days ago.

The other highlight was in the evening on day two, before a delicious team dinner. The doctor team, comprising Hardik, Tohid, Floyd and myself, went on a 5km evening bushwalking adventure. Don’t get me wrong, this was a work trip and we did have a number of meetings to attend and stakeholders to catch up with, but it was equally as important for us all to make the most of this bonding experience. Along the hike, Tohid invited us to sing songs as we made our way up and down the steep island terrain. It was unexpected but lots of fun. The hidden coves, beautiful views, and various picnic spots scattered throughout the bushland were spectacular. Hamilton Island offers some truly magnificent vantage points and today we experienced passage peak.

So there you go, a quick reflection about our time at Atticus Health – Hamilton Island. Be amazed. Take a step back and look at your life with gratitude every now and then.

Brett Thiedeman

Healthy Ageing

Posted on by Jake Jackson

Atticus Health is happy to have become a member of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) based at Frankston Hospital.

NCHA is a partnership between Peninsula Health and Monash University created to further research and development into Healthy Ageing.

We thought it appropriate to become a member since Atticus Health is significantly involved in aged care, especially through our work at residential aged care facilities and now directly through our home care service, Mark & Sylvie’s Home Care.

As part of this, Atticus Health is presently involved in the NCHA project “Optimising health information exchange during aged care transfers”.

The objective of the project is to develop and test a digital health solution for summarising and sharing an agreed set of data considered critical during the medical transfer of aged care residents.