One of the most visited sections at Heart Valve Journals, our social network, is the patient’s guestbook. It’s pretty amazing to see all the support, care, advice and love exchanged among patients, caregivers, friends and family members. For example, Judy Fridono has 775+ comments in her Guestbook following her recent heart valve surgery at USC.

To enhance the Guestbook, we just a launched a great new feature.

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For those in the Oakland area, I wanted to invite you to a special, educational seminar hosted by Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California this Thursday, February 17, at 6:30pm.

During this complimentary session titled, “For People with Heart Murmus”, Dr. Junaid Khan, staff surgeon, will discuss heart valve disease and the various treatment options available to patients. To help patients and their caregivers understand the patient perspective on heart valve surgery, Dr. Khan has asked me to speak at the event and then sign books. FYI, all books signed will be provided at no charge for those who RSVP in advance of the event (while supplies last).

If you or some you know would like to attend the event, please RSVP by calling (510) 869-6737 as soon as possible — space is limited.

I hope to see you there!

Keep on tickin!

I am very excited to introduce the first of several “Surgeon Video Blogs” that were filmed at the 47th annual Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting earlier this week.

In this video, Dr. Richard J. Shemin, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA Medical Center, responds to Barbara’s question, “Can minimally invasive aortic valve surgery occur if there is an aneurysm of the ascending aorta?”

Below, I have included a video transcript for the hearing impaired:

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I recently received an anxious email from Ruth about mitral valve repair. Ruth writes to me, “I would like to learn more about a prolapsed ANTERIOR leaflet of the mitral valve. I have been told that repair may not be possible. I am terrified… Do you have any information on the risks involved with this type of repair? Thanks, Ruth”

Considering the urgent nature of Ruth’s question, I contacted Dr. David Adams — a leading mitral valve repair surgeon from The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. What happened next is quite extraordinary… First, Dr. Adams quickly responded to Ruth with a comforting email. Then, Dr. Adams created a 22-minute video to help patients better understand this type of mitral valve surgery.

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No need to preface this… Prepare for patient inspiration.

I feel honored to share with you that our website sponsors the Iron Heart Racing team. If you have a minute, you may want to learn about its extraordinary leader, David “IronHeart” Watkins, a former aortic valve replacement patient and endurance athlete.

Keep on tickin’ Iron Heart Racing Team & David!