From fellowship programs to patient-centric care, here are the programs that five cardiology leaders are most proud of.
Gopi Dandamudi, MD. Executive Medical Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Health at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (Tacoma, Wash.): We started a cardiology fellowship program, which is the fourth program for the entire Pacific Northwest. Between that program and our internal medicine residency program, we are educating the next generation of physicians. I'm also proud of our Mission Control hub, which allows us to coordinate care by knowing in real time where every patient is, what tests are pending and expediting care to reduce length of stay. Then there's our hospital at home, which keeps people out of the hospital and helps them recuperate at home. We incorporate a lot of digital technology, which is helpful.
Through our virtual nursing program, which recently launched at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, we are bringing live cameras into patient rooms. These allow us to talk to patients and treat them virtually before they're transferred to another site or discharged. I think these are all things we never thought of probably 10 years ago but COVID-19 accelerated. It's all very exciting for us, especially in the cardiovascular realm.
Alina Joseph. Executive Director of Heart and Vascular Services at Kettering (Ohio) Health Network: In 2023, we received recognition from Premier for our fourth year in a row as a top 50 cardiovascular hospital, and that's something we're super proud of. It isn't a fluke. It was nice when we got it once, and then we got it a second time. We're up to four years in a row. We're really proud of that and want to continue it.
Meera Kondapaneni, MD. Chief of Cardiology at MetroHealth (Cleveland): We have a high school that resides within MetroHealth Hospital. Recently, we partnered with the principal to create a heart health curriculum. We realized that a lot of our education comes after someone already has a disease. It's important that individuals learn how to manage their disease once they have it, but teaching teens how to eat the right foods, be more active can impact their health before it becomes an issue. I'm very excited about this project, which will start this year. Hopefully, we can expand our healthcare education curriculum into the district and prevent risk factors. I think what we do in the community has even much more of an impact because that education percolates across the community, hopefully changing the culture so we are evolving into a more heart health-conscious society than before.
Mitchell Weinberg, MD. Chair of the Department of Cardiology at Staten Island University Hospital (New York City): Patient centricity is probably something we are clearly leading the way in. Last November, Staten Island University Hospital built an entire floor dedicated to the care of patients with cardiac disease. The care focuses on the treatment of patients in the throes of acute coronary syndrome, a heart attack, undergoing stenting or other type of revascularization procedures, opening ordered procedures, patients in heart failure and patients with electrophysiologic disease or cardiac arrhythmias. This floor was designed with the patient in mind and how they would experience healthcare. We hired dedicated cardiologists, dedicated advanced care providers and nurses who were skilled specifically in the care of those disease processes. We also partnered with other disciplines such as nutritionists and physical therapy personnel and brought all of them together to create a plan centered on how the patient would experience care. We created single-patient rooms with amenities more akin to a hotel so patients would have a pleasant experience despite their health challenges.
Jonathan Weinsaft, MD. Chief of Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City): I'm incredibly proud of our ability to translate cardiology advances throughout an incredibly complex network throughout the greater New York City area and our ability to deliver an exceptional level of care in the cardiovascular space, not only at our tertiary care centers, but our affiliate hospitals, and to integrate that health system in a way that provides care that might otherwise be unavailable to communities in greatest need. I'm incredibly proud of the commitment to that, and it's an honor to be part of it.