Heart Valve Experts Connect at TCT 2023!
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: October 27, 2023
For the first time since COVID, I was very excited to attend the 2023 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapies (TCT) conference this week. TCT was founded by Dr. Martin Leon in 1988 and has become an incredible, worldwide event designed to advance minimally-invasive cardiac interventions like transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). This wonderful symposium, which gathered over 10,000 medical professionals, provides an interactive and collaborative environment to foster education and late-breaking science.
For 2023, TCT was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. It was great to see many interventional cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and medical companies that specialize in heart valve therapy at TCT.
Here is Dr. Michael Reardon, Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at Houston Methodist in Houston, Texas. As you may know, Dr. Reardon is the National Surgical Principal Investigator for the Evolut Low Risk TAVR Clinical Trial sponsored by Medtronic. Dr. Reardon was at TCT presenting the late-breaking, four-year results of the Evolut Low Risk Clinical Trial.
For the first time, I was lucky to meet Dr. Roxana Mehran, a TCT Course Director who is Professor of Medicine and Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City. Dr. Mehran does a lot of interesting work specific to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Here’s a live shot from an educational session inside one of TCT’s many lecture halls.
It’s always great to see Dr. Steve Bolling, a mitral valve expert from University of Michigan Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Bolling and his team have been long-time supporters of the HeartValveSurgery.com community.
I was fortunate to connect with Dr. Rob Smith, Chairman of Cardiovascular Surgical Services at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano, in the ‘Speaker Ready Room’ as he prepared his late-breaking clinical trial presentation about transcatheter mitral valve repair therapy.
That’s Michaela Mueller, a Senior Group Product Manager at Medtronic. Michaela has been great to work with on several educational initiatives over the years.
While talking with Michaela at the Medtronic booth, I had a moment to see and touch some of Medtronic’s amazing medical devices. As you may know, Medtronic is one of the world’s largest medical device companies that manufactures the Evolut TAVR device for patients with aortic stenosis. Here is a quick video showing the Evolut TAVR.
Many Thanks To TCT & The Attendees!
On behalf our patient community, thanks so much to TCT for organizing such a wonderful conference.
We realize how challenging it must be to plan and execute a big conference like this. That said, TCT was amazing!!! We really appreciate TCT and all the attendees for helping heart disease patients live better, longer and healthier lives.
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
