Is Your Heart Surgeon Research Good Enough?
After having a double heart valve surgery and interviewing hundreds of patients, I can not stress how important it is to feel incredibly confident in your heart surgeon. There is nothing better than knowing you found the right surgeon with the right procedure at the right time.
That said, you or your caregiver should conduct extensive research to find the right man or woman for the job. (Sadly, this advice is not always followed as 35% of patients have valve surgery without a second opinion.)
Specific to this topic… Over the past few weeks, I have traded several emails with James - a patient from Massachusetts with severe mitral regurgitation. In reading his words and seeing his actions, I know James is on the path to finding the best cardiothoracic surgeon for him.
How do I know this? Well… Take a look at the research James located about surgeons in his area. Even though the spreadsheet is tiny, I hope you can see some of the data that James is using to evaluate his potential surgeons. This table shows the surgeon name, 30-day mortality rate, case load and hospital.
After all of his research, James just informed me that he selected Dr. Alan Hilgenberg from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Interestingly enough, Dr. Hilgenberg was identified as one of the “highly recommended heart surgeons” when I conducted a survey of former heart patients for my book.
Dr. Alan Hilgenberg
James is scheduled for surgery on August 29th to fix his diseased mitral valve. I want James to know that I’m thinking great and healthy thoughts for him!
Keep on tickin James!
Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.
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August 16th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I would recommend that anyone who is considering any form of heart surgery go directly to www.healthgrade.com and search their database for the specialty and surgeons who are listed. Each surgeon will be carefully documented and an analysis will be provided that will assist you in your search for the right surgeon. Referrals from friends are okay, but check out the doctors. The cardiothoracic surgeon who was initially referred to me by my cardiologist was not even board certified. Suffice it to say that I found the right surgeon and have a new cardiologist based upon his recommendation. It pays to check them out. Besides I discovered that my surgeion, Dr. Robert Robison, CorVasc MDs, had performed over 4,000 valve replacements during his career. That is a lot of experiential knowledge to access! I was very comfortable placing myself in his hands.