Dr Theodore Chow, Principal
Investigator of MASTER I trial, statement
"I believe that MTWA testing in today's clinical practice can add
value to the patient encounter. MTWA testing provides additional information
about a patient's mortality risk profile that could influence the chosen
therapy. While I firmly support evidenced based ICD therapy, I also believe
that a good physician brings more to the clinical encounter than recollection
of a treatment pathway--that doctoring is about treating the patient, not the
ECHO. While MTWA testing may not influence the clinical decision every time,
having more information about your patient's risk profile is frequently still
better than having less when making an informed decision. By analogy, I do not
necessarily need a CXR (chest x-ray) to know that my patient has pneumonia, but
I order it because it provides me with a deeper understanding of my patient's
condition. In those cases where more data about mortality risk helps make one a
better doctor, I advocate MTWA testing."