Castle Connolly Medical & HeartValveSurgeons.com

December 14th, 2007

[Update: You may want to consider HeartValveSurgeons.com to find your heart valve surgeon.]

I’ll be straight with you… After my second opinion confirmed that I would need heart valve surgery, I was pretty overwhelmed.

It is pretty hard to process that your sternum will be broken, your heartbeat will stop and your heart will be cut open. (FYI, I tried to figure out a softer, kinder way to say that. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. )

Still, upon my double-diagnosis from Dr. Wyman and Dr. Chaikin, I decided to take action. I knew what needed to be done. I knew I needed aortic valve replacement surgery and… I knew I needed it soon. That said, it was time to find a heart surgeon, more formerly known as a cardiothoracic surgeon.

There are several, different paths to finding the right surgeon. And, there are several, different ways to interview a surgeon to determine if he / she is a good fit for you.

Recently, I received an email from Itzik, one of my readers, about a very interesting company called Castle Connolly Medical.

As you can read on their website, Castle Connolly Medical is a healthcare research and information company founded in 1991 to help patients find the right surgeons for them. Pretty interesting, right? The site also provides information on hospitals as well.

Granted, this service does come at a fee, but I thought it might be of interest and value to some of you. Who knows, perhaps you have already used Castle Connolly?

If you are interested, feel free to visit their website and learn more by clicking this link, Castle Connolly Medical.

Keep on tickin!

About The Author: Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. This unique book integrates clinical research with the personal experiences of 135 former patients to help future patients and their caregivers better understand the problems, the opportunities and the realities of heart valve surgery. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.