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April 2021 Newsletter

graphic reads "One IU CV Newsletter"

We strive to be One, diverse academic health enterprise where people come to receive the highest quality heart and vascular care in their community while also enabling relentless innovation that fuels better health for Indiana and beyond. Read on to learn about recent advances in realizing this vision.


Top News

Clinical Achievements

The first catheter-based ablation was performed at IU West on Monday, March 22nd. The patient had recurrent atrial flutter which was successfully ablated at IU West EP lab. The case went smoothly, and the patient was discharged the following day. This advanced treatment will now be offered to patients at IU West Hospital.

Dr. Mohamed Homsi

Pictured: Mohamed Homsi, MD




Patient at Ball Memorial Hospital underwent a brand new procedure, TAVRThe first patient underwent a brand new procedure, TAVR (Transcather aortic valve replacement), in the Cath Lab at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital. Read the full story here

Story reported by:
Elizabeth Yates
Marketing Associate
IU Health East Central Region

 

 

Indiana University Health Arnett Cardiovascular Services now offers Tippecanoe County's first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program. The team, which is led by cardiac surgeons, Dr. Kyle Yancey and Dr. Thomas Kalmbach; interventional cardiologists, Dr. M. Ziaul Hoque and Dr. Nivas Balasubramaniyam; and anesthesiologist, Dr. Raymond Cooper and Dr. Sunitha Govindaswamy, performed the first two TAVR procedures in the cath lab at IU Health Arnett on February 9th, 2021.



Launch of the CVI Website

Check out the newly published Cardiovascular Institute website.
What's missing? Please let us know.

 

Fellowship ACGME Re-accreditation

The Review Committee for Internal Medicine, functioning in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), has accredited the following fellowship programs with continued accreditation (Program Directors included):

Cardiovascular Disease
Deepak Bhakta, MD

Deepak Bhakta, MD

Interventional Cardiology
Elisabeth von der Lohe, MD

Elisabeth von der Lohe, MD

Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology 
John Miller, MD

John Miller, MD

Vascular Surgery
Raghu Motaganahalli, MD

Raghu Motaganahalli, MD


Proudly, we continue to operate these programs free of citations, confirming our commitment and focus on strong cardiovascular and vascular training for future generations to come.


Cardiology Fellowship Program Coordinator
Stephanie Plummer

Stephanie Plummer

Vascular Fellowship Program Coordinator
Vara Bonnell

Vara Bonnell

 

KUDOS

Honors and Recognitions

Through her outstanding contributions and dedication to the educational mission at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Julie Clary was selected to receive a 2021 Trustee Teaching Award.

Dr. Rana Zouveenoor was elected to represent the southern district of the Indiana ACC. "I believe ACC has the potential to further influence practitioners involved in providing cardiovascular care for favorable patient outcomes. In my two-year tenure, I plan to represent the ideas of my colleagues at different advocacy levels, and I aspire to help bridge relationships between new cardiologists in Indiana and the mentorship program ACC can offer," says Dr. Zouveenoor.

Dr. William Gill and his team are the recipients of the first ever IUHP Excellence in Patient Experience Award for Specialty Care. This team achieved an Experience Score of 93.41% for the entire year of 2020. "This is a true 'team sport' at the Zionsville/Anson office," says Dr. Gill.

Zionsville Cardiology group

 

Awards

Dr. Loren Field was recently awarded an RO1. He and his colleagues have identified genetic variants in inbred strains of mice which profoundly impact the initiation of cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity following myocardial injury. The experiments proposed in this application will identify the gene (or genes) responsible for this cell cycle activity and determine if they have a beneficial impact on the heart following injury. Ultimately, the identification and validation of genes underlying intrinsic differences in cardiomyocyte cell cycle rates could suggest potential therapeutic targets with which to enhance regenerative growth in injured hearts.


Presentations

Dr. Lawrence Lee and colleagues formed the Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERAS-Cardiac) program at IUH Methodist in 2019 involving all phases of care. Since implementation in 2020, the program has decreased hospital opioid use by 57%, while patients remained Satisfied or Very Satisfied with their pain control during the hospital stay. Early postoperative mobility increased with no increase in adverse events or complications. Cheers to this multidisciplinary team for their ongoing work to deliver the highest quality postoperative care!

 

Publications

Physiologic pacing produces cardiac contraction that better mimics normal cardiac contraction, which may in turn improve patient's symptoms and lessen the risk of heart failure. Dr. John Strobel and colleagues recently published the results of a clinical trial in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology on successful physiologic pacing by combining CT imaging to deliver effective, permanent His bundle pacing (HBP). The study demonstrated that lead tip locations at either the atrial or ventricular ends of the His bundle provide acceptable pacing parameters, though the ventricular location was preferable to avoid oversensing of atrial activity.

Dr. Pantila Bateman and colleagues introduced echocardiography to second year medical students at Indiana University using the Unit Modeler software, including "introduction to echocardiography" modules written by Dr. Harvey Feigenbaum and small group cases prepared by Dr. Bateman. The survey mentioned in their recent publication in Echocardiography - Wiley Online Library showed the students enjoyed this experience and thought that learning echocardiography was helpful in understanding cardiology. The students who used the Unit Modeler significantly received higher cardiology test scores than those who did not.

The study published in the recent JACC article by ACHD colleagues, including Dr. Georges Ephrem and Dr. Stephen Cook reports that the presence of a structural congenital heart defect did not necessarily portend an increased risk of mortality or morbidity from COVID-19 infection. However, several factors were associated with mortality and severe infections including cyanosis and pulmonary hypertension, especially when combined (Eisenmenger syndrome). Furthermore, susceptibility might be based on physiological factors, not the complexity of the underlying anatomic defect, and are concordant with general population studies that showed risks associated with age, male sex, diabetes, and renal insufficiency. Targeted preventive measures are indicated for patients with CHD who are at greatest risk of mortality and severe morbidity due to COVID-19 such as those with Eisenmenger syndrome.

Cardiology at IU, including the legacy of Krannert, has a long history of research in cardiac handling that is critical to heart function. The opportunity to test a CAM kinase inhibitor in the clinic was a natural extension of this effort. Cheers to our clinical research coordinators who made IU Health the #1 enrollment site in North America for this phase ll trial, published in one of the premier cardiovascular journals JAMA Cardiology (IF 12.79) and guiding physicians and scientists to better ways to protect heart muscle after a heart attack.


Check out more publications in recent months from across OneIUCV
Vascular Surgery
Cardiac Surgery


In the Media

Emotional trauma linked to deadly heart condition. Watch the Wishtv interview to learn what Dr. Kyle Frick had to say about a condition that's on the rise during the pandemic.

Dr. Elisabeth von der Lohe was recognized in The IU Health Daily during Women's History Month for modeling excellence.




#OneIUCV Team Selfie of the Month

Interventional Cardiology Group

Pictured are some of our interventional cardiology faculty members. From left to right: Dr. Georges Ephrem, Dr. Jeffrey BreallDr. Elisabeth von der Lohe, Dr. Onyedika Ilonze and Dr. Rolf Kreutz.

There is a total of 11 highly experienced operators with the majority having more than 20 years of experience. They offer state of the art interventional procedures with either femoral or radial access. This also includes high risk percutaneous coronary interventions such as left intervention, several forms of atherectomy, laser, intravascular ultrasound, percutaneous valve replacement such as TAVR and mitral clip, closure of the left atrial appendage for patients with atrial fibrillation and mechanical heart support with either intra-aortic balloon pumps or Impella. They participate in multicenter trials. In addition, they are an ACGME certified interventional training program and train 2 interventional fellows per year.

Please send a selfie of your team to OneIUCV@iu.edu with a short caption of how you help achieve our Vision so we can share with the world!


Do you have a story that reflects the strength of our statewide system for cardiovascular care?
Please email OneIUCV@iu.edu so we can share with the team!

The views expressed in this content represent the perspective and opinions of the author and may or may not represent the position of Indiana University School of Medicine.
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Cardiovascular Institute

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide—and in Indiana. Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives each year than the next three leading causes combined. To meet this challenge, the Cardiovascular Institute brings together highly skilled caregivers, researchers, and educators into close collaboration to improve the health of patients and communities across Indiana.