February 23, 2022

When it comes to matters of the heart, there are few that are more important than the promotion of cardiovascular health.  American hospitals are world renown for their excellence and innovation in the treatment of heart disease.  To support this assertion, a recent post in Becker’s Hospital Review outlined examples of milestones reached just this year at four different hospitals involving cardiovascular treatment.  They are as follows:

• Rock Island, Ill.-based Trinity Heart Center implanted its 100th Watchman device, ourquadcities.com reported on Feb. 17.
• Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center recently reached a 19,000th open-heart surgery milestone, the center said on Feb. 7.
• Cleveland Clinic’s Weston (Fla.) Hospital completed its 200th heart transplant, according to a Feb. 2 news release.
•  East Lansing, Michigan-based Sparrow Health System cardiologists performed the 400th successful implant of the Watchman, a device implanted in the upper chamber of the heart to decrease risk of stroke in some patients, the system said on Jan. 10.

All this would appear to indicate a growing confidence and competence on the part of the American healthcare industry to successfully bring about a new lease on life to thousands of patients. 

A Growing Need

It appears that this expertise in treating heart disease will be increasingly needed in the months and years ahead.  We’re all aware that the American populace is aging—at an accelerated rate.  The baby boomer generation (born 1946 to 1964) are either soon entering or are already in retirement.  This group represents millions of citizens who will be subject to the strong potential of developing various cardiovascular ailments within the next few years.  Hospitals will need to add to their long-term planning strategies that will allow them to devote more resources to meet the increasing demand arising from this new reality.

If an aging population weren’t enough to convince medical systems to secure suitable solutions and facilities to address the growing heart-related patient population, new findings suggest that heart disease may be increasing in patients of varying age, due to issues associated with COVID-19.  Becker’s recently provided the following summary:

• Heart disease, including heart failure and death, occurred 4 percent more often in COVID-19 patients than in other people, a study published Feb. 7 in Nature Medicine found.
• Older stroke patients with a history of COVID-19 infection were more likely to develop blood clots in their veins than those without, according to preliminary findings published Feb. 3 ahead of the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2022.
• Forty-one percent of Americans have experienced at least one heart-related issue since the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, the Cleveland Clinic said Feb. 1.
• Male adolescents and young adults experienced a higher risk for myocarditis after receiving their second COVID-19 vaccination dose, a study published Jan. 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found.

All this would suggest that cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons have their work cut out for them.  It would behoove hospital planners and decision-makers to determine the best ways to address what may be a significant influx of new heart patients.  But where does one start?

Exemplars of Excellence

Some hospitals have already begun the process of gearing up for the potential expansion of heart patients coming their way.  For example, Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles recently added to its staff Jae Hyung Cho, MD, PhD.  According to a Feb. 17 news release, Dr. Cho is being referred to as a “physician-scientist” and is currently investigating the possibility of using cell therapy to regenerate healthy heart muscles, reduce abnormal rhythms and improve heart function among heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction.  Assets like Dr. Cho are not easy to come by.  If your facility is not able to find a physician-scientist, there are other solutions available.

Healthcare Weekly recently reviewed five of the latest technologies for treating cardiovascular disease.  They are as follows:

• Stem Cell Therapy. Among companies leading the way in the use of this treatment is BioCardia–a clinical-stage biotechnology-regenerative medicine company that develops innovative therapeutics for the treatment of heart failure.
  
• Implantable Defibrillators.  Designed by Newpace with the help of researchers from Na Homolce Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic, the implantable string subcutaneous defibrillator (ISSD) is a less invasive device that can prevent sudden cardiac death.  Unlike current subcutaneous defibrillators, the ISSD doesn’t require a metal pulse generator pocket. Instead, it uses a single flexible string-shaped device with no leads within the heart. The average implantation time is only 20 minutes, and the device can be connected to a smartphone. 
  
• Robotic Sleeve.  Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers came up with a soft robot that fits around the heart and helps it beat. The device holds much promise for individuals whose heart has been weakened by a heart attack and are at risk of heart failure. The robot syncs with the heart through a thin silicone sleeve with soft pneumatic actuators that mimic the heart’s outer muscle layers. It does so without any direct contact with the blood, as is the case with most currently available devices. This removes the need for potentially dangerous blood thinner medications.
  
• 3D Bioprinted Heart Tissue.  Biolife4D, a Chicago-based biotech startup, recently announced that it can bioprint a human cardiac muscle patch, which can be sutured over an area of dead heart muscle to speed up recovery from acute heart failure. It involves reprogramming a patient’s blood cells into stem cells, which are then mutated to produce the specific types of cells suitable for the 3D bioengineering of a human heart.
  
• AI Algorithms.  Verily is an artificial intelligence algorithm that promises to predict heart disease just by taking one glance at a patient’s eyes. To build this technology, scientists looked at a database of nearly 300,000 patients and scanned it for patterns. Since the rear interior wall of the eye hides a network of blood vessels, the eye scans revealed telltale signs of heart disease, such as high blood pressure. Although still in the testing stage, it is able to predict, with 70% accuracy, whether a patient will suffer a heart issue in the next five years.

So, even though hospitals will no doubt be facing an uptick in heart ailments in the near future, there are technologies and strategies that are available to help keep up with the quickened pace.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and we are grateful for those who have devoted themselves to providing new innovative means to mend the broken-hearted.  If you would like to reach out to our hospital business solution experts, please contact us at info@miramedgs.com.