Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on ECG’s website.
Background
TAVR therapy was first performed in select tertiary medical centers across the US during its 10-year investigative phase. Even prior to FDA approval in 2011, the therapy had gained a high level of interest among interventional cardiologists, c(CV) leaders as a novel and less invasive alternative to open-heart surgery.
Current Growth Patterns
New TAVR program development has gravitated toward more densely populated communities, resulting in clusters of competing programs (figure 2).
As of 2021, 98.0% of new TAVR programs had been established in metropolitan areas, and 52.9% were started in metropolitan areas with existing TAVR programs.4 The city of Houston, for example, has nine TAVR programs competing for volume, and six US cities have six or more programs each. This regional density often translates into lower case volumes per hospital, and it challenges programs to maintain both clinical expertise and financial margins. Click here to continue>>
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