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Dr. Brian deGuzman
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Why Should Heart Patients Be Active In Their Care? - Dr. deGuzman (VIDEO)

Dr. Brian deGuzman explains why heart patients should be active participants in their own care.

Dr. deGuzman:
I am Brian DeGuzman. I am the Associate Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Heart & Lung Institute. I have been here for about 18 months now. I was recruited from the Lahey Clinic in Boston where I was for about five years before coming to Phoenix, and before that I spent a year at the Clement Clinic doing some specialty training in cardiovascular surgery, and I did my formal residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

You know, I think it is important for patients really to become educated about their disease process, become familiar with what the treatment options and treatment plans and availability of different treatments are, so that they can really make informed decisions for themselves because I think it is important for patients nowadays, based on the current landscape of medical care provision, that patients really take the ownership and direction of their own care, because they obviously are currently very intelligent consumers, can make good decisions and really have to be at the center of making those decisions for themselves rather than being told what they should have or should not have. Because I think when you explain things to patients in a way that they can truly understand, they completely get it and should be able to and can make those decisions for themselves. So, I think it is very important for them to do that.

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