Congratulations to Dr. David Adams, New AATS President!!!
By Adam Pick on May 10, 2018
On behalf of his patients, their families and our global community…
I wanted to extend a mighty “CONGRATULATIONS!!!” to Dr. David Adams who was just announced as the 99th President of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS). As you may know, Dr. Adams, who is the Cardiac Surgeon-in-Chief at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, is a mitral valve repair guru. He’s written books on mitral valve repair. He’s invented mitral valve repair devices. He’s ran conferences about mitral valve repair. And, he’s even started the Mitral Foundation, a unique philanthropic organization that has taken him all over the world to teach mitral valve repair techniques.
Personally, I am so happy and thankful that the AATS, which is the oldest and most prestigious organization dedicated to cardiothoracic surgery, recognized Dr. Adams for his commitment to advance valvular therapy and his patient-centric vision specific to mitral valve reconstruction. I am so hopeful his presidency will translate into an elevated awareness to Dr. Adams’ beliefs, research, clinical experiences and extraordinary outcomes.
Over the years… It’s been excellent hearing all the successful outcomes from patients in our community that went to Dr. Adams for surgery. Currently, Dr. Adams and his team perform over 450 mitral valve operations per year with a 99% repair rate. Without even thinking about it, I can quickly ramble off patient names including Mark Linnus, Sophie Marsh, Boris Keyser and so many others. Here’s a memorable video I filmed with Brian Walsh, a patient of Dr. Adams, that returned to his passion, running, after a successful mitral valve repair.
Lucky for me… I’ve been fortunate to spend time with Dr. Adams in the operating room at Mount Sinai, on a medical mission in the Dominican Republic and, of course, at the annual Heart Valve Summit. So you know, Dr. Adams was one of the first surgeons to support my ideas about patient education. I’ll never forget when I first met Dr. Adams at a conference in 2011. During that lunch, Dr. Adams said to me in his Southern accent, “You keep doing what you’re doing. It’s so important. Patients need to know about their disease and how to treat it. I want to help. Please let me know what I can do.”
That vote of confidence from Dr. Adams gave me the courage to build HeartValveSurgey.com while others were telling me I was wasting my time.
For these, and so many other reasons, I’m thrilled to see this announcement. Thanks to the AATS for electing Dr. Adams as the new president! This is wonderful!
Keep on tickin’ Dr. Adams!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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Ellen K Gordon says on May 14th, 2018 at 8:38 pm |
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Dear fellow readers and valve recipients, After watching the 60 minutes report about bladder sling mesh replacement I started wondering about the manufacture of heart valves and how safe they are.. According to 60 minutes the most recent slings are manufactured in China from polypropylene mesh which is substandard and not safe or compatible in the human body. These implants are expected to last 40, 50, or 60 years, but deteriorate after 4 or 5. The FDA had nothing to say, of course, but various experts interviewed were alarmed about these slings used in women’s bodies. My question is: How safe are the many types of heart valves used? Is the FDA minding the store on the various types of valves? I personally have a bovine valve which I understand is “manufactured” in some way. |
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Kim Jones says on July 31st, 2018 at 4:29 pm |
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I wished I could have Dr. Adams to do my re-repair of my mitral valve from regurgitation. How can I get questions answered about this? |
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