Page 25 - An Innovation Spirit ...
P. 25
few years ago, so I thought to all,” he says. “I was surprised it siemens.com/cardiology
myself, ‘There’s no more risk was over in about half an hour.
to that than getting a stent I heard that, normally, the way More cardiology,
put in,’” says Mr. McCallum. they were doing it before, you less heartache.
had tubes down your throat,
Even though he would be the all kinds of things. It seemed Sustainable solutions that advance
first patient in Ontario to undergo much less invasive to me. I cardiovascular care.
the procedure while awake, Mr. never felt a thing,” he admits.
McCallum says that didn’t bother It is amazing what cardiovascular medicine can accomplish
him. “I took it all in stride. You “To be honest with you, I was today. And how challenging it can be to accomplish it. At
put your faith in the people who lying there, looking around Siemens, sustainable cardiovascular care is all about pushing
are going to do the job,” he says. and thinking, ‘All this damned back clinical boundaries and pulling down operational
equipment for me?’ And the barriers. In other words, it’s about helping you deliver more
“Dr. Horlick asked me, ‘What nurses and doctors – it was quite cardiology with less heartache.
do you expect from this?’ an experience to see what they
And I said, ‘I expect to come were all doing, you know?” Less heartache means improving patient outcomes by
out the other side,’” says Mr. reducing time-to-diagnosis, offering new therapeutic
McCallum with a chuckle. In the years since the Innovation options, and getting better guidance during advanced
Committee first voted to support procedures. Less heartache also means performing safer
Mr. McCallum’s historic awake and fund the TAVI project, more procedures with higher operational efficiency – on the
TAVI procedure took place than 420 patients at UHN have way to a more personalized care.
on January 16, 2015. Because benefited from the procedure.
there would be no general It was partly due to this success Innovation brought us here. At Siemens, innovation
anesthetic, there was no need that Ontario’s Ministry of Health continues. Advancing cardiovascular care, with less
for a breathing tube or a urinary and Long-Term Care approved heartache, sustainably.
catheter. An anesthesiologist and began funding TAVI in 2013,
administered sedation, and Mr. and it’s now currently being
McCallum says the procedure used in several key hospitals
that followed was painless. across the province that have
demonstrated excellence in
“There was no discomfort at the field, says Dr. Rakowski.
01 David McCallum, caregiver for As for Mr. McCallum, he stayed
wife Annie, had the life-saving, on for three days in the hospital
leading-edge TAVI procedure for after his awake TAVI and went
those too high-risk for open heart home feeling “really good.”
surgery. And he says that good feeling
has continued to this day.
02 Interventional cardiologists, Dr.
Lee Benson (left), Dr. Mark Osten “I would recommend
(middle) and Dr. Eric Horlick (right), this procedure anytime at
examine a 3-D printed model of all. I wouldn’t have one
the heart. hesitation,” he says. “It was
very, very well done.”
02
Winter 2016
