Heart Matters

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Charles Kerr, MD Dr. Charles Kerr, president of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and director of the electrophysiology program at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, joins host Dr. Janet Wright, to discuss the challenges of managing patients with atrial fibrillation. For those patients who may warrant ablation, what is the current thinking about wh...

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Arvind Agnihotri, MD For patients diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis, corrective surgery is advised and is often extremely safe and effective. But there are some patients with advanced disease whose symptoms may be difficult to recognize, and thus may remain undiagnosed without careful consideration. As Dr. Arvind Agnihotri, assistant professor of surgery at Harvard...

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Arvind Agnihotri, MD Artificial heart valves have steadily evolved since their arrival on the surgical scene in the 1960s. A range of the newest devices have shown significant potential, including the prospect of valve replacement in high-risk, symptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis. What are the most promising devices on the horizon today, and how will thes...

Host: Jack Lewin, MD Guest: James Dove, MD Host Dr. Jack Lewin speaks with Dr. James Dove, immediate past president of the American College of Cardiology, about strategies to improve the integration of quality into our healthcare system. No physician wants to fall short of providing the best care available, so it is imperative, Dr. Dove says, that physicians receive the tools they need to succeed,...

Host: Jack Lewin, MD Guest: Uwe Reinhardt, PhD In a recent survey tracked by Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, Medicare patients in northern New Jersey accrued three times the medical costs in their last two years of life as patients in the southern half of the state. Save for seismic demograph...

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Jill Jesurum, PhD Who would expect that a hole in the heart and a pain in the head are related? If you take care of patients who suffer from migraine headaches, host Dr. Janet Wright's interview with Dr. Jill Jesurum, scientific director of the Heart & Vascular Institute at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, may shed light on some unanticipated benefits of treatme...

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Elliott Antman, MD Recent guidelines for unstable angina and non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) can be characterized as a progression and fine-tuning of past recommendations, which have contributed to a remarkable decline in the devastating outcomes. Dr. Elliott Antman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Samuel A....

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Elliott Antman, MD Revising treatment guidelines is a continuous process, with authors always monitoring the latest data that needs to be shared with practitioners. What developments prompted the latest updates to the guidelines for care of patients with acute myocardial infarction? Host Dr. Janet Wright visits with Dr. Elliott Antman, professor of medicine at Harvard...

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Theodore Abraham, MD It is a condition that most commonly affects our young athletes, but many of the symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) do not manifest until it is too late. How are we improving our techniques and strategies for preventing, identifying and addressing HCM before it leads to tragedy? Dr. Theodore Abraham, associate professor of medicine at t...