Yeah, there are a lot of practices in modern medicine that are done just because they don't know what else to do and/or because they generate revenue. If you suspect a heart problem, the knee-jerk initial test is the EKG. Now, the EKG could detect something other than heart attack ... such as irregular heartbeats, etc. ... and they are used to determine whether a heart attack is still in progress (when someone comes in with chest pains).
If your EKG shows an irregular heartbeat, you had better be on your way to the operating room. Most irregular heartbeats are found when someone wears a heart monitor, not in an EKG.
An EKG shows IF you have had a heart attack sometime in your life. Can't tell you when, unless you are in the throws of a heart attack when the EKG is being done, and this seldom happens because by the time you get to the ER the heart attack is over.
Ekgs are almost totally worthless. B. Sanborn should have had an angiogram, esp after the second time he went to the ER for the same complaint.