Centra Stroobants Heart Center

            Many Smith Mountain Lake residents regularly commute to Roanoke or Lynchburg for medical care. Often, it’s the only way they can get the specialized care they need.

            Chad Hoyt, a physician with Lynchburg-based The Cardiovascular Group, recognized that a number of healthy lake residents would benefit from wellness visits to specialists as well, and opened the Centra Stroobants Heart Center at Downtown Moneta in December 2008.

            "This is an idea that we’ve talked about for the last two or three years," Hoyt said. "We realized that there were many patients who lived near the lake."

            Hoyt said he hopes the new location will not only be convenient, but will save lives. If patients don’t have to drive as far, they might visit their physician earlier and participate in advanced testing and screening, he said.

            "We want to see these people who are interested in cardio wellness, who want to have their risk assessed," Hoyt said.

            Three other physicians – David B. Truitte, Jason M. Hackenbracht and Thomas M. Meyer – make up the SML practice, which is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. For the first two months of business, the staff offered basic cardiovascular screenings and standard cardiovascular health needs. Screenings were conducted using stress tests, stress echoes and heart rhythm-monitoring equipment, according to Elaine Nichols, the heart center’s office manager and sonographer.

            Earlier this year, the center expanded its services to include the nuclear stress test, which Nichols explained allows the physician to view the patient’s heart differently than traditional tests.

            "Isotopes are injected into the patient through an IV and the nuclear pictures are done before and after the treadmill test," she said, adding that the test may or may not be performed based on the patient’s health and symptoms.

            In April, the center began offering Pulmonary Artery Disease (PAD) studies, which Nichols said is non-invasive and takes about one hour. The test can help a patient receive a cardiovascular diagnosis much earlier – sometimes before there are any symptoms – Nichols said.

            In March, physicians from Seven Hills Urology Center, also based in Lynchburg, opened office space in the same building. Physicians David Leffke, Robert D. Cook and K. Finnie Green see patients Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

For more information, call the Stroobants Heart Center at 540-297-7840 or Seven Hills Urology at 434-947-5297.