Health briefs: Heart Smart event
• Northwest Community Hospital, 800 W. Central Road, Arlington Heights, offers screenings and educational seminars on heart awareness throughout the year, including a Heart Smart event on Saturday, Feb. 26, where visitors can receive a personalized cardiovascular risk assessment. For details, visit nch.org/heartsmart.
• Take Charge of Your Health, a course designed for seniors with chronic health issues, will be offered from 9:30 a.m. to noon Thursdays, Feb. 17 to March 24, at the Hoffman Estates Village Hall, 1900 Hassell Road, Hoffman Estates. Participants will learn self-management tools that help them take charge of their health. The free course is offered by the Illinois Department of Aging. Call (847) 781-4850 to register.
• Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights is among the first hospitals in the Chicago area to launch a program that provides low-dose CT lung screenings for high-risk smokers. The NCH program comes in the wake of a breakthrough national study that found that low-dose CT scans of current and former heavy smokers reduced their risk of death from lung cancer by 20 percent because of earlier detection of the disease.
The NCH program will follow the protocols of the eight-year National Lung Screening Trial, which was conducted by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network and the National Cancer Institute. For information, call (847) 618-6575 or visit nch.org. To schedule a lung screening, call (847) 618-3700.