Wow! The Controversies & Advances in the Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease Symposium!
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: December 4, 2023
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the “Controversies and Advances in the Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease Symposium” in Los Angeles, California. This annual conference was organized by Dr. Raj Makkar and hosted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
As you can see below, the main ballroom at the Beverly Hills Hotel was packed with all types of cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, physician assistants, researchers and industry experts. The educational topics covered, discussed and debated ranged from valvular disease to atherosclerosis to clinical trials to artificial intelligence.
The faculty and the speakers at the conference was full of titans and legends specific to the treatment of heart valve disease.
Here is Dr. Martin Leon who is a leading interventional cardiologist at Columbia University Medical Center / NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Leon has been a national principal investigator in many transcatheter valve clinical trials that ultimately led to the FDA-approval of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Dr. Leon also started the “Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapies Conference” that I recently attended in San Francisco. Dr. Leon’s presentation was titled, “Percutaneous Tricuspid Valve Repair or Replacement for Severe Tricuspid Regurgitation: Cosmetic Benefit or Altering Natural History? Insights from TRILUMINATE and TRISCEND Trials”
This special event was very interactive for the attendees. Here is Dr. Joanna Chikwe, Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who presented a lecture titled, “Mitral Valve Surgery Is and Always Will Be the Gold Standard”. As you can see below, the panel for this session included Dr. Leon, Dr. Makkar and Dr. Alfredo Trento.
It was great to connect with Dr. Michael Mack, the Medical Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery for Baylor Scott & White Health (BSW) and the Chairman of BSW The Heart Hospital – Plano Research Center. Dr. Mack gave an insightful lecture titled, “Long Term TAVR Follow-Up in Perspective: What Is the Role of Surgery Moving Forward?”, that you can learn more about here.
At the symposium, the attendees were also able to see the latest innovations specific to heart disease treatment. For example, Medtronic had an exhibitor booth that featured its Low-Risk Evolut TAVR device.
For the treatment of atrial fibrillation, the AtriCure team showed me how their devices were treating AFib via the Cox-Maze procedure during heart valve surgery.
In addition to hearing from leading physicians about the latest innovations and research specific to valvular therapy, it was great to see many members of the Cedars-Sinai team that have supported the HeartValveSurgery.com community over the years. Below is Shannon Davis, the Associate Director of Marketing at Cedars-Sinai, who I have been fortunate to work with on several patient education initiatives.
Thanks to Dr. Makkar & All Symposium Attendees!
On behalf our patient community, thanks so much to Dr. Makkar, Dr. Hasan Al-Jilaihawi, the program directors, the faculty, and the attendees for being part of such a wonderful conference. We really appreciate your commitment, your collaboration and your work helping heart disease patients live better, longer and healthier lives.
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Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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