Howard H. Wayne, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P.
Dr. Wayne obtained a combined M.D. and Masters degree in cardiovascular
physiology at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest and received
his training at the Cleveland Clinic. Early in his career, while on the Faculty
of the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, the forerunner of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he was challenged by
the frequent occurrence of unexplained accidents involving high performance
aircraft. In addition, criteria were being defined for the selection of future
astronauts. (It wouldn't due for an astronaut to have a heart attack on the
moon or halfway between Earth and Mars). Because the conventional cardiac
evaluation, which is still used today, was so insensitive in the detection of
heart disease, the thinking at that time was that supposedly healthy pilots
were having heart attacks. Consequently, one of his early interests was to
discover new ways of uncovering heart disease in pilots and future astronauts.
This started him on a career long quest of an early warning system so that
heart disease not only could be diagnosed but treated as early as possible.
With grant support from the American Heart Association, Dr. Wayne was
successful in applying new methods to study heart function and to use these
procedures to uncover heart disease long before traditional examination
methods. Subsequently he wrote the first textbook on noninvasive cardiology in
the early seventies. During the seventies and eighties Dr. Wayne set up
scientific exhibits and gave lectures throughout the United States, Europe and
Asia to teach other doctors about these new methods of examination. From
1975-1979 his scientific exhibits were displayed on multiple occasions at
annual meetings of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart
Association, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Chest
Physicians, the American Medical Association, the European College of
Cardiology and the Asian Society of Cardiology. His scientific exhibit won the
American Medical Association's first prize in 1975. In the process of detecting
heart disease prior to the appearance of symptoms, he was able to discover more
effective ways of treating coronary heart disease with medication.
The combination of early detection and treatment has been so successful that
only eleven of his patients have had to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery or
angioplasty in the past 22 years. In addition, heart attacks and premature
death have become exceedingly rare in the patients who remain on a tailored
medical program. Dr. Wayne feels strongly that heart disease need not be the
number one killer it is today. With proper and early diagnosis with modern
noninvasive tests, and appropriate treatment with up-to-date drugs, it can be
turned into a benign disorder compatible with a good quality of life and a
normal life span. Heroic procedures such as angioplasty and bypass surgery are
only rarely necessary. Doctors who quickly urge patients to have these
treatments as soon as symptoms appear may be more dangerous to the patient than
their disease.
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