“Ask Adam Anything” Gets Amazing Patient Response at AATS!
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: May 3, 2026
Dear Patients, Doctors & Friends,
OMG! I am overwhelmed by our community response to the “Ask Adam Anything” event at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS) in Chicago!
As you might recall… Last week, I posted a request for patient questions about heart valve disease management and treatment. Within minutes, my inbox started to fill-up with fascinating patient questions. Since then, I have received more than 200 questions. To prepare for the all-day video shoot at AATS, I spent Friday night going through the patient questions in preparation for “Ask Me Anything” session at AATS. Fyi, we invited 10 leading heart valve surgeons to join us for this special interactive event.
TransForm™ McCarthy Mitral Annuloplasty Ring
Above is picture of Dr. Patrick McCarthy, the Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and a mitral valve expert at Northwestern Medicine. If you look closely, you can see that I’m pointing to Dr. McCarthy’s new mitral valve repair ring known as the TransForm™ McCarthy Mitral Annuloplasty Ring. This innovative device is able to “transform” from a d-shape into a circle-shape to accommodate a transcatheter mitral valve replacement during a “valve-in-ring” procedure if the patient requires an additional mitral valve therapy in the future. Dr. McCarthy shared with me, “Adam, It’s like having an airbag in your car.” Here’s a quick video showing how the ring can transform.
Not only did we get to interview Dr. Marc Gillinov, the Chairman of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, about important topics including second opinions and mitral valve disease progression but we also got to meet Lisa Gillinov, his wife.
Below is Dr. Ismail El-Hamamsy, Director of Aortic Surgery at Mount Sinai Health in New York City. Dr. El-Hamamsy and I talked about new research specific to technical modifications to the Ross Procedure and his oral abstract about bicuspid aortic valve repair surgery presented at AATS.
That is Dr. Juan Pablo Umana, the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at University of Miami Health System in Miami, Florida. Dr. Umana answered questions from Lisa and Robert about upper age limitations for the Ross Procedure and the important considerations of patient outcomes relative to incision sizes.
Yep! Below is Dr. Eric Roselli, the Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. So you know, Dr. Roselli was one of the program directors of AATS year. So, a special thanks goes out to Dr. Roselli for getting us all together for this extraordinary event. During our interview, Dr. Roselli answered patient questions from Sharon, Cora and Ben about aortic stenosis progression, echocardiograms, heart valve durability and artificial intelligence.
Here is Dr. Ioannis Loumiotis, the Director of Aortic Surgery at AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida. During the interview, we talked about the different criteria that Dr. Loumiotis uses to evaluate whether-or-not a diseased aortic valve can be repaired.
That is Dr. Bill Brinkman, the Director of the Thoracic Aortic Clinic at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano. We discussed Ross Procedure re-interventions, the impact of weightlifting after heart valve surgery, and critical patient considerations for the surgical or transcatheter treatment of aortic regurgitation.
Here is Dr. Kenan Yount, a heart valve expert the Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Yount and I talked about the role of minimally-invasive techniques for mitral valve disease and how he evaluates patients for surgical aortic valve replacement or transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
In addition to filming video interviews, our time at AATS gave us an opportunity to meet other leaders in cardiac care. Below is Dr. Sara Pereira, the Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Here is Dr. Chris Mehta, Director of the Bicuspid Aortic Valve and Aortic Dissection Programs at Northwestern Medicine. Dr. Mehta answered Cindy’s question about aortic dissection risks and Jeanne’s question about aortic valve sizing.
We had a great time with Dr. Ciro Amodio, the Director of the Aorta Program at University of Miami Health System in Miami, Florida. We discussed several topics including aortic valve disease, aneurysms and the importance of finding cardiac centers that specialize in the patient’s specific disease.
What Happens Next?
The next step in the “Ask Adam Anything” experience is that our team will edit the 25+ educational videos filmed at AATS. We will then have the videos transcribed for the hearing impaired members of our community and finally we will syndicate the videos across the HeartValveSurgery.com Social Media Platform that is followed by over 585,000 patients, care partners, cardiac surgeons, referring cardiologists, physician assistants, nurses, hospitals and research organizations.
If you would like to receive all the educational content from the “Ask Adam Anything” event, please click here to subscribe to my free newsletter.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
I want to extend a mighty thank you to all the wonderful patients who participated in the “Ask Adam Anything” event at AATS! I was so happy to receive so many great patient questions. I realize that we did not answer every patient question. However, please note that we will put all the unanswered questions into our educational queue so that we can address those questions in the future.
I would also like to thank the amazing surgeons who participated in this special event! As a community, we cannot thank you enough for your support of this educational initiative and the care you provide for heart valve patients!
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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