Heart Valve CareLine Helps Save Bob’s Life!
By Adam Pick on October 3, 2018
Bob Taylor was running out of time. His heart valve disease was worsening and his insurance company just denied him a life-saving operation. Then, Bob’s daughter heard about the Heart Valve CareLine. This is Bob’s extraordinary story.
Inside The Operating Room: Dr. Allan Stewart Explains Heart Surgery
By Adam Pick on September 25, 2018
It’s not every day I get a chance to see a “Chief” of cardiac surgery operate. So… When Dr. Allan Stewart invited me into his operating room to observe a mitral valve repair and Maze procedure for atrial fibrillation, I immediately booked a flight and hopped on a plane to Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute. As you can see below, this educational experience was extraordinary!
The “Forgotten” Tricuspid Heart Valve Gets Transcatheter Love
By Adam Pick on September 20, 2018
We’ve talked a lot about transcatheter aortic valve replacement, also known as TAVR. We’ve talked a lot about transcatheter mitral valve repair (e.g. the MitraClip). We’ve also talked about transcatheter mitral valve replacement devices (e.g. Tendyne) that are in clinical trials.
However… We have not spent a lot of time discussing transcatheter tricuspid valve therapies.
Well… I think that is about to change.
Why Did 100 Patients & Care Partners Get a Standing Ovation at Patient Day 2018 at Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, California?
By Adam Pick on September 17, 2018
Something special recently happened. More than 100 patients and their care partners traveled to Edwards Lifesciences, a leading heart valve manufacturer in Irvine, California, to meet each other, to share their stories and to inspire action within our community – the heart valve patient community.
This day is appropriately called… Patient Day!!!!!
Luckily, Edwards hired us to film the wonderful moments of this unique event that included meet-and-greets with the heart valve assembly teams, panel and group discussions, a campus and manufacturing tour and more. One of my favorite parts of the day was watching patients meet the Edwards employees who made their valves by hand.
Ready to see what happened at Patient Day 2018? Watch the video below…
Heart Surgery Innovation: Robotic Mitral Valve Surgery Evolves with Percutaneous Cannulation
By Adam Pick on September 11, 2018
There are LOTS of great advances happening in the treatment of heart valve disease. Many of those technological breakthroughs enable cardiologists and surgeons to perform life-saving procedures with smaller-and-smaller incisions.
As you might recall, one of the big breakthroughs in valve therapy was the FDA approval of the da Vinci Surgical System to perform robotic mitral valve repair procedures for patients with mitral valve regurgitation in 2002. Since then, we have collectively learned a lot about robotic surgery from leading clinicians including Drs. Chitwood, Trento, Gillinov, Mihaljevic and Badhwar.
Recently, I’ve received several great questions about robotic mitral valve surgery. For that reason, I felt it was time to get an update about robotic technology. I wanted an expert opinion, so I reached out Dr. T. Sloane Guy at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. Dr. Guy is a robotic specialist that has helped many patients from our patient community. Here are the highlights from our recent exchange.
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