Health & Fitness
Wite
Tom Ellison
Sales and Design
The Landscape Group
HEART HEALTHY
2739 East Maple
Milford, MI 48381
248.685.9211
www.landscapegroup.net
what
For over twenty years we have been one of the
most creative design/build residential and commercial
landscaping firms in Oakland County.
Patient Protection
Study: Radiation for heart test
can be cut by more than half.
Ilene Wolff
Special to the Jewish News
T
Commercial and Residential
Brick Pavers • Plantings • Stamped Concrete • Sod • Hydro Seed
Lighting • Water Features • Irrigation • Garden Railroads
The Landscape Group was established in 1985. For over twenty years we have been one of
the most creative design/build residential and commercial landscaping firms in OaIrdand County.
Consisting of over 30 plus employees, our design, sales and installation crews are unmatched when
it comes to experience. Our design staff has 4 designers, each with at least 15 years experience as
well as our install crews and project managers who are dedicated landscape professionals that are
committed to excellence in the finished product
The ability to provide one on one personal service for your landscape project including neces-
sary sub-contractors is our strong suit By saving you the inconvenience of working with several
companies, we are able to coordinate your job to provide you with a complete project from start
to finish, by working with just one designer and project manager!. From new construction to reno-
vations on your existing home, we can professionally install brick pavers, retaining walls, large tree
tansplants, shrub plantings, irrigation. sod, hydroseed, water features, outdoor lighting, decks, pools.
outdoor living areas including kitchens and fireplaces.The Landscape Group can handle it all!
All of the plant material you'll find at our I I -acre nursery' is hand tagged, from all over the
country.We welcome all of our customers to come and view the plant material that is going to be
part of their landscape. Our exclusive warranty is one of the best in the industry. When you select
The Landscape Group, you not only get great service and experience, you get piece of mind by
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chooseThe Landscape Group.
adeerthenield
A32
July 16 • 2009
he radiation dose for a
diagnostic scan of the heart
and blood vessels was cut
on average by more than half for
almost 5,000 patients through a
Michigan quality improvement
project. There was
no affect on image
quality. Doctors and
hospitals statewide
have helped protect
patients from the
potential risks of
radiation exposure
as a result.
Dr. Raff
Details of the
project — a quality improvement
initiative funded by Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan — are published
in the June 10
issue of Journal
of the American
Medical
Association.
The project participants were able
to reduce the radiation dose by an
average of 53.3 percent, to about
the equivalent of three years' "back-
ground radiation." This refers to
radiation one would get from such
sources as sunlight and radioactiv-
ity from the earth.
They were able to reduce the heart
CT radiation dose through the use
of seven risk-reduction protocols,
such as limiting the area scanned
and by adjusting the power of the
scanner depending on the patient's
weight.
"The public should be reassured
that Blue Cross and the participating
hospitals are monitoring radiation
doses and looking for ways to reduce
them," says cardiologist Gilbert L.
Raff, M.D., medical director of the
Ministrelli Center for Advanced
Cardiovascular
Imaging at
Beaumont
Hospitals, Royal
Oak, who leads the
project."By doing
this in a voluntary
and collaborative
way, we've been
successful in
improving health
care overall, espe-
cially for those
with medical con-
ditions requiring
frequent CT imag-
ing."
Data for the
radiation-reduc-
tion project were
- Dr. Gilbert L. Raff collected on
4,995 patients at
hospitals in the
Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging
Consortium. The consortium was
organized in 2006 with ongoing
financial support from Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM)
and Blue Care Network to provide
administrative, logistical, statistical
and analytical support for the qual-
ity improvement work.
"The coronary CT angiography
initiative is one of our organization's
Value Partnerships — a collec-
"The public should
be reassured that
Blue Cross and
the participating
hospitals are
monitoring
radiation doses and
looking for ways to
reduce them."
The project not
only involved 15
hospitals working
together in the first
multi-center trial
of its kind, it also
included heart spe-
cialists and radi-
ologists working
side by side.
Known as heart
CT angiography,
or coronary com-
puted tomography
angiography, the
procedure has a
90-percent success
rate in diagnosing
heart disease. It is especially use-
ful in identifying whether low-risk
patients with symptoms do, in fact,
have heart disease.
It uses contrast, or dye, in the
arteries and high-resolution CT to
get detailed images of blood vessels
and the heart to identify possible
blockages or structural problems.
But the exposure of patients to ion-
izing radiation during the test is a
barrier to its widespread use.