Having kids, I can honestly say I’d never want them to die because they participated in risky activities, especially if they had a “discoverable” condition. That is speaking as a parent.

But as form of policy to disseminate to the general public, echocardiograms are inherently expensive, require careful standards on which to base reading evaluations (and not all labs are accredited nor do they all have qualified techs), and like any test, are subject to false positives, especially when applied to a population with a low incidence of disease. The cost to our healthcare system, especially in today’s climate, is excessive, especially when we need to consider the public’s interest. Additionally, many of those proposing these tests are the very ones most likely to gain financially from such a policy.

So as a cardiologist and parent, I’d love it if such a policy were enacted. But as a matter of public policy, I’m not sure it’s cost effective, whatever that means.