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‘Tactical Athletes’ Require Different Kind of CVD Care
Confirmed
In Short: The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released new cardiovascular guidance for clinicians caring for tactical athletes.
The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have released new cardiovascular guidance for clinicians caring for tactical athletes, a category of professionals first recognized in the early 2000s.
Tactical athletes, including EMTs, firefighters, police officers, and military personnel, face physically exerting, highly stressful work in extreme, uncertain, and life-threatening conditions.
Jeffrey Hsu, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at UCLA Health, noted, 'One of the greatest challenges with tactical athletes is that you can’t anticipate every possible condition or situation.
The new guidelines highlight the importance of a well-designed emergency action plan for cardiac emergencies, given that tactical athletes may be required to serve in locations with limited access to emergency care.
The leading cause of death on the job for these 'tactical athletes' is cardiovascular disease, according to the statement.
Roughly 4 million Americans are considered tactical athletes, and clinical guidance for these distinctive athletes has lagged well behind that for competitive athletes.
The new scientific statement aims to address the distinct clinical framework needed for tactical athletes, who may not benefit from the shared decision-making model used for competitive athletes.
Benjamin Levine, director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, told STAT, 'One of the unique aspects of the tactical demands is that often you don’t get to warm up. You don’t get to prepare for a few weeks.
The guidance covers how to evaluate these athletes with cardiovascular disease or at risk for developing one, in light of their duties.
The authors estimate that 4 million Americans fill these roles, and the guidance is designed to provide a foundation for understanding the complex decisions involved in evaluating and deciding on their care.
What this adds
The new guidance aims to close the gap in clinical care for tactical athletes, who have unique health needs due to their high-stress, physically demanding jobs.
The shift in risk tolerance for tactical athletes necessitates a distinct clinical framework that adapts classical shared decision-making to their operational realities.
The guidance is a significant step in ensuring that tactical athletes receive appropriate care that balances their health risks with the critical nature of their work.
What's confirmed
- The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have released new cardiovascular guidance for clinicians caring for tactical athletes, a category of professionals first recognized in the early 2000s.
- Tactical athletes, including EMTs, firefighters, police officers, and military personnel, face physically exerting, highly stressful work in extreme, uncertain, and life-threatening conditions.
- Jeffrey Hsu, MD, PhD, a cardiologist at UCLA Health, noted, 'One of the greatest challenges with tactical athletes is that you can’t anticipate every possible condition or situation.
- The new guidelines highlight the importance of a well-designed emergency action plan for cardiac emergencies, given that tactical athletes may be required to serve in locations with limited access to emergency care.
- The leading cause of death on the job for these 'tactical athletes' is cardiovascular disease, according to the statement.
- Roughly 4 million Americans are considered tactical athletes, and clinical guidance for these distinctive athletes has lagged well behind that for competitive athletes.
- The new scientific statement aims to address the distinct clinical framework needed for tactical athletes, who may not benefit from the shared decision-making model used for competitive athletes.
- Benjamin Levine, director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, told STAT, 'One of the unique aspects of the tactical demands is that often you don’t get to warm up. You don’t get to prepare for a few weeks.
- The guidance covers how to evaluate these athletes with cardiovascular disease or at risk for developing one, in light of their duties.
- The authors estimate that 4 million Americans fill these roles, and the guidance is designed to provide a foundation for understanding the complex decisions involved in evaluating and deciding on their care.
What's still developing
- “There are unique considerations one must account for when caring for tactical athletes,” said Bradley Petek, MD, a cardiologist at OHSU in Portland, Oregon, and co-author of the scientific statement.
- Many competitive athletes used to be prohibited from sports if they had cardiovascular issues, but recent research suggests athletes may be able to safely compete after discussing the risks with their clinicians and participating in a shared decision-making model about competition.
- “Our main concern with athletes is the risk of sudden cardiac arrest and death with high intensity activity, whether that’s in competition or in training, so clinicians need to be familiar with these risks while balancing them with an acute understanding of the role that sport, exercise, and training plays in athletes’ lives,” said Hsu.
- A shared decision-making model may include physicians, athletes, family members, coaches, and teammates.
- “If I’m with a buddy in a fire and that buddy goes down, and now I’m alone in the burning building, that’s really different,” Levine said.
- Tactical athletes may be the most important professionals you’ve never heard of.
- What sets these EMTs, firefighters, police officers, Marine pilots, Navy SEALs, Army engineers, and astronauts apart from competitive athletes is who they’re playing for: not for themselves, not for a team, but for their community.
- Having worked on the competitive sports guidance and its updates since the 1990s, he saw a hole when it came to highly elite athletes working not in the context of competition, but in the context of service.