Cardiac Rehab and Disease Prevention

The Healthy Heart Program or Cardiac Rehabilitation is for people who already have heart or blood vessel disease and for people who are at risk of getting these diseases. This can be due to certain risk factors in their family history, medical history or lifestyle.

Definition of Cardiac Rehabilitation (or Cardiac Rehab for short):

Learning, with guidance from the health team to exercise, eat properly, manage stress and take these skills back home. Basically, learning to live a “heart healthy” life

A team of health professionals will work with you including:​

• Cardiologists
• Clinical Psychologists
• Exercise Specialists
• Exercise Leaders
• Occupational Therapists
• Registered Dietitians
• Registered Nurses
• Social Workers

What to bring to your visit:

• A list of your medications and dosages 
• Any relevant medical information, including recent hospital visits, MD appointments and latest test results
• Your BC Care Card

Bring to exercise class:

• Comfortable clothes to exercise in
• Rubber sole/ non slip shoes
• A list of your current medications
• A snack for after exercise, especially if you have diabetes

Patient information:

What to expect:

• Review of your heart health with program cardiologist
• Treatments and support to reduce symptoms and the risk factors for heart and blood vessel disease
• Blood test to evaluate cholesterol levels
• Assessment of your ability to exercise and carry out activities
• Prescription for exercise
• Individual nutritional counselling
• Twice weekly exercise classes
• Education about heart health
• Support for smoking cessation
• Professionally lead workshops for reducing stress, anxiety and depression
• Counselling for individual psychological assessment and referral

Contact Information:

Telephone:    604-806-9270

The Prevention Clinic is part of the Healthy Heart Program dedicated to preventing heart and blood vessel diseases as well as diabetes. The Prevention Clinic is also the main provincial clinic for people in British Columbia with inherited disorders of cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism.

The Prevention Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic designed to educate people about the risk factors for heart attack, stroke, other blood vessel disease and diabetes, and to reduce these risks through a combination of healthy diet and other lifestyle behaviors including exercise, and medications where needed. Difficulty tolerating cholesterol-lowering medications such as statins is another factor managed in the Prevention Clinic.

Preventing heart and other blood vessel diseases includes assessment of your diet and exercise routines, and your risk factors that might include abnormal cholesterol or triglycerides levels, known heart or other blood vessel disease, smoking, stress levels, high blood pressure, and diabetes or pre-diabetes. Your family history, especially of early onset heart attack or stroke, high cholesterol, or diabetes is also important in predicting your own risk.

A team of health professionals will work with you including:

• Either a Cardiologist, Endocrinologist or Medical Laboratory Medicine Specialist
• Registered Nurse Educators
• Registered Dietitians

What to bring to your visit:

• A list of your medications and dosages
• Any relevant medical information, including about the presence or heart disease, stroke, diabetes or high cholesterol in your family members, if known
• Your BC Care Card

What to expect:

At your first visit you will have:

• Your history reviewed and risk factor information provided by a Registered Nurse Educator
• A diet assessment and diet recommendations provided by a Registered Dietitian
• A review of your history, physical examination and further recommendations including additional tests and medications as needed, as well as a plan for follow up with a Physician Specialist

At follow up visits you will have:

• A review of your diet, exercise levels, symptoms, medications, laboratory results and other new history by a Physician, to assess achievement of your goals for reducing cardiovascular and diabetes risk

Contact Information:

Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic First floor Burrard Building, St. Paul’s Hospital

Telephone: 604-806-8591
FAX: 604-806-8590

Healthy Heart Referral Form

Healthy Heart Pamphlet