Category Archives: Cardiology

Cardiology

Northern Light Mercy Hospital expands cardiology services with 2 … – Press Herald

NEW HIRES

Northern Light Mercy Hospital has added two physicians to its cardiology services in Portland: Dr. Aline Iskandar and Dr. Adam Karpman.Iskandar earned her M.D. from the University of Southern Denmark, where she also did postdoctoral training at Odense University Hospital. She later completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and a cardiology fellowship at University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center. She then joined Maine Medical Center and worked as a cardiologist with MaineHealth for almost seven years. Karpman earned his D.O. from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, and completed a residency in internal medicine at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. He then completed a fellowship in cardiology at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to his clinical practice, he serves as a professor at the UNE medical school.

Kristen McAuley has joined the John T. Gorman Foundation as a senior program associate. In her role, McAuley will develop investment strategies that advance the foundations goal of promoting the well-being of Maine children and their families. McAuley comes to the foundation from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as the director of public health planning. She also served as director of prevention for the MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence and assistant director in the Division of Disease Prevention at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She has a bachelors degree from Eckerd College, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jill Ward has been named a senior policy adviser in the U.S. Department of Justices Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In this part-time role, Ward, director and an adjunct professor at the University of Maine School of Laws Center for Youth Policy and Law, will provide policy guidance to the departments juvenile justice office. Prior to her time at Maine Law, she worked on youth justice issues with numerous state and national organizations, including the Maine Childrens Alliance, the Childrens Defense Fund, the Girls Scouts of the USA, the Campaign for Youth Justice and the Youth First Initiative.

PROMOTIONS

At Camden National Bank, Kathleen Bellmore has been promoted to senior vice president, talent acquisition & diversity, equity, and inclusion officer. In her new role, she will continue to lead the banks talent acquisition function while also directing DEI efforts. Bellmore has been assisting with Camden Nationals recruitment efforts for over 10 years, and holds a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Maine and an MBA in human resources management from Thomas College. She is recognized as a senior certified professional by the Society for Human Resource Management and a professional in human resources by the Human Resource Certification Institute.

Maritime Energy has promoted Charon Curtis to senior vice president. She joined Maritime in 2007 as operations manager for the Maritime Farms convenience stores and as a member of the senior management team. Her new responsibilities include overseeing the fuel, propane, transport, customer service, branch offices and service departments. The Rockland-based company sold its 13 Maritime Farms stores in December and is now focused on its core energy business, serving Knox, Lincoln, Waldo, Hancock and Kennebec counties.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS

Marc Gosselin, executive director for sports tourism and community partnerships for the City of Auburn, has been named to the Maine Sports Commission board of directors. Gosselin, who is also a professor at Central Maine Community College, bring a variety of sports management experience to the role. In addition to his work with the city, he has served as head of corporate partnerships for the NHLs Columbus Blue Jackets. He also was vice president of corporate partnerships for the Maine Red Claws, now the Maine Celtics, in the NBA G League. He will serve a two-year term on the Maine Sports Commission board.

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Northern Light Mercy Hospital expands cardiology services with 2 ... - Press Herald

Cardiology

Icosapent ethyl reduces ischemic events in high-risk patients with … – Healio

March 22, 2023

3 min read

Steg PG, et al. Highlighted Original Research: Ischemic Heart Disease and the Year in Review. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 4-6, 2023; New Orleans (hybrid meeting).

Disclosures: REDUCE-IT was funded by Amarin. Steg reports receiving consultant fees/honoraria from Amarin, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Idorsia, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, PhaseBio, Regeneron and Sanofi Aventis; receiving research grants from Bayer, Merck, Sanofi Aventis and Servicer and speaking for Amgen.

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NEW ORLEANS In patients with elevated triglycerides and recent ACS, icosapent ethyl reduced risk for first and total ischemic events compared with placebo, according to new data from the REDUCE-IT trial.

As Healio previously reported, in the main results of REDUCE-IT, icosapent ethyl (Vascepa, Amarin), a pharmaceutical-grade omega-3 fatty acid, was superior to placebo for reducing risk for ischemic events in patients with elevated triglycerides at high CV risk despite statin therapy. P. Gabriel Steg, MD, chief of the cardiology department at Hpital Bichat, Paris, and professor of cardiology at the Universit de Paris, presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session a post hoc analysis of REDUCE-IT covering 840 patients from the trial who had ACS, defined as MI or unstable angina, within 12 months before enrollment.

Steg told Healio that the post hoc analysis was undertaken because the main results showed that the icosapent ethyl group had elevated risk for atrial fibrillation or flutter, as has typically been observed with omega-3 fatty acids, and modestly elevated risk for bleeding compared with the placebo group.

Because of that, there were concerns that in patients with recent ACS who are particularly high risk for cardiovascular events, who have a higher risk for atrial fibrillation and who often receive intensive antithrombotic therapy including dual antiplatelet therapy, there might be a greater propensity for bleeding or atrial fibrillation or flutter, and it was uncertain whether benefit would be less, equal to or larger than in the overall population, he said in an interview.

Among the cohort, the median age was 59.5 years, 77% were men, 36.9% had diabetes, 99.9% were on statin therapy and 95.8% were on antiplatelet therapy. The primary endpoint was a composite of CV death, nonfatal MI, nonfatal stroke, coronary revascularization or unstable angina.

Steg and colleagues found that at a median follow-up of 5 years, compared with the placebo group, the icosapent ethyl group had 37% reduced risk for first primary endpoint event (HR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.84; P = .002) and 36% reduced risk for total primary endpoint events (RR = 0.64; 95% CI, 0.45-0.9; P = .01).

In patients with recent ACS, the absolute risk reduction of first events with icosapent ethyl at 5 years was 9.3% and the number needed to treat to present one first event was 11, which Steg said was remarkable, whereas in patients with ACS more than 12 months before enrollment, the absolute risk reduction of first events with icosapent ethyl at 5 years was 4.7% and the number needed to treat to present one first event was 21 (P for interaction = .16), according to the researchers.

Among those with recent ACS, the icosapent ethyl group was more often hospitalized for AF or flutter (4.8% vs. 1.7%; P = .01), and there was no difference between the groups in bleeding rates (icosapent ethyl, 6.9%; placebo, 8.1%; P = .6), Steg and colleagues found.

It seems that icosapent ethyl is remarkably beneficial in this subgroup of patients and is safe, so [there is] no reason to deny those patients, withhold therapy or delay starting therapy with icosapent ethyl, Steg told Healio.

In fact, Steg said, We should be particularly careful not to miss these patients early on because of the magnitude of the benefit in that high-risk patient population. This seems to be an effective preventive measure to take in post-ACS patients in those who are eligible: statin-treated adults post-ACS with an LDL between 40 mg/dL and 100 mg/dL and elevated triglycerides between 150 mg/dL and 500 mg/dL. Weve computed that this is approximately one of eight patients. So its not for everybody, but for those who qualify, theres quite a good deal there.

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Cardiology

Supervised exercise training is safe and may improve quality of life for many people with heart failure – News-Medical.Net

For many people who have heart failure, supervised exercise training is safe and may offer substantial improvement in exercise capacity and quality of life, even more than medications, according to a new, joint scientific statement from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. The statement is published today in both the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation and in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the body either due to the heart muscle stiffening or from it losing pumping strength. Treatments are focused on reducing symptoms, such as shortness of breath and fatigue, and minimizing or delaying the consequences of the condition, which includes decreased quality of life; frequent hospitalizations; loss of functional independence; high health care costs; and increased risk of death.

The statement is a review of the latest evidence-based research to better understand the potential impact of supervised exercise therapy for the more than three million people in the U.S. living with chronic, stable heart failure with preserved ejection fraction or HFpEF. This condition occurs when the heart is stiff and does not relax normally to fill with enough blood to pump to the body, yet the heart muscle is still strong enough to pump well. In comparison, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction occurs when the left ventricle can't pump with the force needed to push enough blood into circulation. In the U.S., heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is one of the most common forms of heart failure, with women disproportionately affected compared to men, according to the scientific statement.

The prevalence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction continues to increase due to aging of the population and the growing prevalence of risk factors such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Improved management of this large population of patients who have HFpEF, many of whom may be undertreated, represents an urgent unmet need."

Vandana Sachdev, M.D., chair of the scientific statement writing committee

Sachdev is a senior research clinician and the director of the Echocardiography Laboratory in the Division of Intramural Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the National Institutes of Health, as well as the scientific lead for the new NHLBI heart failure program HeartShare.

In April 2022, recommendations were released by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology for supervised exercise training for people with heart failure, regardless of the type. Sachdev clarified that, currently, Medicare only reimburses cardiac rehabilitation for people with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

"Exercising helps improve the heart's pumping ability, decreases blood vessel stiffness and improves the function and energy capacity of skeletal muscle," Sachdev said. "Exercise capacity is an independent, clinically meaningful patient outcome, and research has indicated that guided exercise therapy is actually more effective at improving quality of life for people who have HFpEF than most medications."

Members of the writing committee critically examined research published since 2010 to assess the most current data on the impact of exercise-based therapies for HFpEF.

The studies evaluated various types of exercise, including walking, stationary cycling, high-intensity interval training, strength training and dancing in both facility settings and home-based training. Supervised exercise therapy generally occurred three times per week for each of the studies, and the duration of the programs varied from one month to eight months.

In the studies, researchers measured peak oxygen uptake, which is a way to assess exercise capacity by measuring the total amount of oxygen a person can breathe into the lungs during physical exertion. For people living with HFpEF, their peak oxygen uptake is often about 30% lower than that of a healthy person and considered below the threshold required for functional independence (and performing normal daily living activities such as carrying groceries).

The statement writing committee determined that supervised exercise training may lead to:

The statement acknowledges there were variations in the baseline characteristics of people in the trials reviewed. Some of the studies excluded patients with some co-existing health conditions, and many groups of people in whom heart failure is prevalent -; including older adults, women, persons with low socioeconomic status and people from diverse racial and ethnic groups -; were under-represented in some research. Additionally, many of the studies were smaller, single-center studies, and most were relatively short term, so there isn't enough information to assess long-term adherence, which the committee suggests should be addressed in future research.

"Overall, we did find that in people with chronic, stable heart failure and preserved ejection fraction, supervised exercise training is safe and provides substantial improvements in exercise capacity and quality of life," Sachdev added. "Future work is needed to improve referral of appropriate patients to supervised exercise programs, and better strategies to improve long-term adherence to exercise training is needed. Hybrid programs combining supervised and home-based training may also be beneficial. Further, implementation efforts will need to include coverage by Medicare and other insurers."

This scientific statement was prepared by a volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. It is endorsed by the Heart Failure Society of America; the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation; and the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses.

American Heart Association scientific statements promote greater awareness about cardiovascular diseases and stroke issues and help facilitate informed health care decisions. Scientific statements outline what is currently known about a topic and what areas need additional research. While scientific statements inform the development of guidelines, they do not make treatment recommendations. American Heart Association guidelines provide the Association's official clinical practice recommendations.

Source:

Journal reference:

Sachdev, V., et al. (2023). Supervised Exercise Training for Chronic Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. Circulation. doi.org/10.1161/cir.0000000000001122.

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Supervised exercise training is safe and may improve quality of life for many people with heart failure - News-Medical.Net

Cardiology

UC San Diego Health Opens New Clinic in Bankers Hill – University of California San Diego

UC San Diego Health is expanding care offered to patients with a new, multidisciplinary clinic in Bankers Hill that will provide specialized care for the community in a centralized location.

The clinic, located at 2131 3rd Ave., San Diego, CA 92101, is now open and is currently offering cardiovascular care, with primary care services to be available later this year.

This clinic will positively impact our patients living with cardiovascular disease and is located in an ideal location near downtown San Diego, said Jia Shen, MD, MPH, cardiologist at UC San Diego Health and medical director of the cardiovascular clinic. It gives us the opportunity to expand our clinical services and evaluate more patients in a timely fashion, while also providing world-class, patient-centered care.

Patients will have access to treatment involving general cardiology, electrophysiology (heart rhythm disorders), interventional cardiology, heart failure, adult congenital heart disease (ACHD), as well as onsite echocardiograms and electrocardiograms (EKGs), patch monitors, blood draws and stress testing.

UC San Diego Health, the regions only academic medical center, is expanding access to our nationally ranked cardiovascular care to better serve our region, said Patty Maysent, CEO, UC San Diego Health. The opening of the Bankers Hill clinic brings the latest state-of-the-art care options closer to multiple communities in Central and South San Diego.

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UC San Diego Health Opens New Clinic in Bankers Hill - University of California San Diego

Cardiology

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital to Bring Nationally Recognized … – McLaren Health Care

March 21, 2023

Author: Lindsey Ulrich

Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital to Bring Nationally Recognized Pediatric Care to Lansing at the McLaren Greater Lansing Health Care Campus

Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital, McLaren and Gillespie Group announce the new location on McLaren Greater Lansings Health Care campus, within the University Health Park

LANSING, Mich., March 21, 2023 Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital, part of Corewell Health, will be upgrading, expanding and bringing new pediatric specialties to the Lansing region and will be partnering with McLaren Greater Lansing to enhance care in the new hospitals Birthing Center by providing pediatric hospitalists and neonatal nurse practitioners. These services will be located on McLarens new health care campus, within the University Health Park, and are set to open Summer of 2023.

Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital (HDVCH), known for its expert care, is committed to bring their vast list of childrens services to the Lansing area. HDVCH and McLaren are working together to expand current pediatric specialty care and bring new services to provide seamless patient care through integrated diagnostic services.

We want to make access to care as easy and convenient as possible for children in the Lansing area, said Dr. Anas Taqatqa, section chief of pediatric cardiology in Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital, Lansing clinic. We are grateful to McLaren for their partnership and for helping to make health care accessible for all.

This partnership with McLaren and HDVCH is a result of many years of planning and collaboration to improve the regions pediatric care, providing access to more families close to home.

McLaren Greater Lansing and HDVCH have held a long-standing position in our communities with a common purpose to provide high-quality medical care for our patients, close to home, said Kirk Ray, President and CEO at McLaren Greater Lansing. This relationship is a part of a broader strategy to provide convenient access to health care by keeping care local for the families we serve.

Newly expanded services will include pediatric and adult congenital cardiology, fetal cardiology, pediatric orthopedics, rheumatology, gastrointestinal, plastic surgery, genetics, infectious disease, neurosurgery, pulmonology, endocrinology and nephrology. Maternal fetal medicine will be offered at this location for the first time, with additional services being added in the future. To access contact information at HDVCH clinics in Lansing click here.

Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital has long served the Lansing area for years through our outpatient pediatric clinics and quickly recognized a need for expanding additional childrens services locally, Dr. Taqatqa said. It is a privilege to bring nationally-renowned pediatric specialties to the Greater Lansing community.

The home of these services will be the second medical services building on the campus, a 60,400 sq. ft. development by Gillespie Group providing a premier destination for additional services including clinical space, medical research, and education as well as increased accessibility to diagnostic imaging to meet the needs of the region. Other services planned for the space include McLarens Multi-Specialty Clinic and an outpatient imaging center through a partnership with McLaren and MSU Health Care. The Gillespie Group team is proud to add another tenant offering necessary services to the region.

We are excited about this state-of-the-art project and what it is bringing to the region, said Pat Gillespie, President of Gillespie Group. Our focus at Gillespie Group is to bring multiple partners together to produce a creative solution that meets the needs of our community now and for the future.

The co-owners of the building were announced in December 2021 as Michigan State Basketball Coach and his wife Tom and Lupe Izzo, Wickens Group President Steve Wickens, and Gillespie Group President Pat Gillespie. MSB2 is on track to be completed in summer of 2023 with 4,190 square feet of first floor space still available for medical, clinical, or office use.

Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital, part of Corewell Health, is a nationally ranked childrens hospital that provides comprehensive clinical care to children all across the state of Michigan. It offers advanced pediatric specialty care with more than 300 pediatric physicians who practice in 70 pediatric specialties and programs and care close to home in over 50 regional clinics.

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Helen DeVos Children's Hospital to Bring Nationally Recognized ... - McLaren Health Care

Cardiology

Heart Failure’s Obesity Paradox Falls Apart on Further Inspection – Medpage Today

For the heart failure population, BMI obesity no longer appeared to hold counterintuitive protective effects after comprehensive adjustment for natriuretic peptides and other prognostic variables in a post hoc analysis of PARADIGM.

Eliminating this so-called "obesity paradox," researchers found that study participants with the highest BMIs actually had excess combined heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular deaths, according to John McMurray, MD, of British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Scotland, and colleagues.

Both increased BMI and waist-to-height ratio, another index of adiposity, were associated with a higher risk of heart failure hospitalization specifically in this trial of people with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). "Greater adiposity was associated with worse symptoms and health-related quality of life, irrespective of the anthropometric index used," study authors reported in the European Heart Journal.

Researchers have spent years trying to figure out how obesity could be an independent risk factor for the development of heart failure but somehow linked to improved survival among heart failure patients.

"We knew this could not be correct and that obesity must be bad rather than good. We reckoned that part of the problem was that BMI was a weak indicator of how much fatty tissue a patient has," McMurray said in a press release.

BMI, a blanket index derived from a person's weight and height, is known to ignore the location or amount of body fat relative to muscle, bone, and retained fluid.

Alternative anthropometric indices proposed include waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, weight-adjusted-weight index, body shape index, body roundness index, and relative fat mass. The waist-to-height ratio in particular may be helpful for capturing, to some extent, sex- and race-based differences in stature and the distribution of body fat, according to McMurray and colleagues.

Indeed, the U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence last year suggested that waist-to-height ratio should replace BMI in the evaluation of adiposity. The recommendation is that a person's waist size should be less than half of height in the general population.

This should be extended to patients with heart failure as well, McMurray asserted in a press release.

Current guidelines do not provide any recommendation regarding weight management in HFrEF.

"Unfortunately, few randomized controlled trials using dietary and exercise intervention, bariatric surgery, or novel pharmacological therapies have been conducted in patients with HFrEF, although the latter are being investigated in individuals with HFpEF [heart failure with preserved ejection fraction]," McMurray and colleagues wrote.

Their present analysis was based on PARADIGM, a large multinational trial of over 8,000 people with HFrEF.

Reported in 2014, the study's main finding was that angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto) significantly reduced events compared with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril.

Benefits of ARNI therapy did not vary by BMI or waist-to-height ratio in the latest report.

No index of adiposity significantly predicted all-cause mortality or cardiovascular death, either.

Study participants had a median BMI of 27.5 kg/m2 and 27.6 kg/m2 between men and women, and a median waist-to-height ratio of 0.58 and 0.59, respectively.

McMurray's team acknowledged the possibility of unmeasured confounding remains in their analysis. The investigators lacked information on patients' cardiorespiratory fitness, for example. The number of people with a low BMI or waist-to-height ratio was also very small.

"Of further interest, therefore, is whether similar results could be obtained in other populations with lower levels of BMI such as Asians," commented Ryosuke Sato, MD, PhD, and Stephan von Haehling, MD, PhD, both of University of Gttingen Medical Center, Germany.

Even the waist-to-height ratio favored by McMurray's group has its limitations, the duo noted in an accompanying editorial.

"[Waist-to-height ratio] is an anthropometric index that reflects central obesity well but is not an adequate measure of skeletal muscle mass. As such, this index cannot specify 'sarcopenic obesity', [sic] a serious pathological condition that involves both fat accumulation and reduced skeletal muscle mass," Sato and von Haehling cautioned.

"Combining [waist-to-height ratio] with skeletal muscle mass evaluation, e.g., by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) or dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), may lead to even better risk stratification of HFrEF patients," they suggested.

Nicole Lou is a reporter for MedPage Today, where she covers cardiology news and other developments in medicine. Follow

Disclosures

The PARADIGM-HF trial was funded by Novartis.

McMurray disclosed institutional payments from Alnylam, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, BMS, Cardurion, Cytokinetics, Dal-Cor, GSK, Ionis, KBP Biosciences, Novartis, Pfizer, and Theracos. Personal lecture fees: Abbott, Hikma, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Servier, Theracos; and personal payments from Abbott, Hikma, Ionis, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Servier.

Butt reported advisory board honoraria from Bayer.

Sato declared grants from the Japan Heart Foundation/Bayer.

von Haehling has been a paid consultant for and/or received honoraria payments from AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, BRAHMS, Chugai, Grnenthal, Helsinn, Hexal, Novartis, Pfizer, Pharmacosmos, Respicardia, Roche, Servier, Sorin, and Vifor, and reports research support from Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharmacosmos, IMI, and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research.

Primary Source

European Heart Journal

Source Reference: Butt JH, et al "Anthropometric measures and adverse outcomes in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: Revisiting the obesity paradox" Eur Heart J 2023; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad083.

Secondary Source

European Heart Journal

Source Reference: Sato R, von Haehling S "Revisiting the obesity paradox in heart failure: What is the best anthropometric index to gauge obesity?" Eur Heart J 2023; DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad079.

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Heart Failure's Obesity Paradox Falls Apart on Further Inspection - Medpage Today

Cardiology

Atrium Health Creates a Life-Saving Game Plan – Atrium Health

During Ed Reynolds 10 years as an active player in the NFL, he had immediate access to some of the best doctors in the country.

I had all of my medical needs addressed right there in the locker room, Ed says. An athletic trainer, primary care doctor, cardiologist, orthopedic doctor. We had every doctor we could possibly need right at our fingertips.

After he retired from the sport in 1993, Ed admits that he grew lax with his medical care and took his health for granted. After all, he was a former professional athlete with an active lifestyle who regularly hit the gym and felt fine. While he had access to team physicians during his playing career, Ed didnt prioritize finding a primary care provider or going for regular preventive screenings; until the NFL Dedicated Hospital Network Program (the Program or NFL DHN) was established in September of 2021.

The Program focuses on the importance of preventive care and connects eligible former NFL players with high-quality medical care providers in every NFL city. It provides eligible former NFL players with benefits including preventive care, primary medical care and mental health services up to certain annual maximums, where applicable. Atrium Health was selected by the Carolina Panthers as the partner of choice and participating health system for the NFL DHN in the Charlotte region. Because Atrium Health was the closest Health System Partner in proximity to where Ed currently resides, Atrium Health became his next team and the one that saved his life.

The NFL DHN is a first-of-its-kind health and wellness program for eligible former NFL players. Former NFL players have access to Atrium Healths expert care to support their wellness beyond their playing careers.

When a former NFL player becomes eligible for the Program, their course of care starts with a call to the Cigna Dedicated Concierge Team to identify their health care needs and desired health system partner. Following their call to the concierge team, players connect with a dedicated clinical care manager at their health system partner of choice who helps them navigate their care. Eds clinical care manager was Pam Black, registered nurse with Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute, and the two developed a close bond.

Entering a health care system can feel overwhelming and I help patients break down the pieces into smaller, manageable parts, Black says. It means a lot to me to be a clinical navigator because I enjoy helping people.

Black coordinated an appointment for Ed with Dr. Anthony Martin at Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute, who is a primary care/sports medicine physician for players in the NFL Dedicated Hospital Network. Ed's first appointment with Martin revealed a cardiac concern. Even though cardiology isn't covered directly under the Program's benefits, Pam and the Cigna Dedicated Concierge Team partnered to connect him to a cardiologist in the system, Dr. Dermot Phelan with Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute. Once his heart condition was managed, Black then scheduled an appointment for Ed to have a routine colonoscopy using the Programs preventive care benefit with Dr. Brittany Seminara, a gastroenterologist at Atrium Health Gastroenterology and Hepatology. That screening became anything but routine.

During the colonoscopy, Seminara found a mass that she recognized as adenocarcinoma, a cancer that develops from cells in the lining of the colon. In the procedure room, while Ed was still asleep, she began to formulate what she would tell Ed and his wife. She knew that once they learned about the cancer, they should also know that Atrium Health had a gameplan to treat it. From there, the team worked together to ensure that Ed continued to have best-in-class care as he went against his toughest competitor yet: cancer.

Dr. Seminara took my degree of anxiousness down a whole lot, Ed says. She started telling me this wonderful game plan, saying, This is what we're going to do and Ive called an excellent colleague right here in Charlotte. And boom, she had next steps. That was a huge relief.

Ed was in stage 4 colon cancer. Before the surgery to remove it, Ed received an innovative form of chemotherapy that delivers treatment directly to the distant tumors through a pump. Atrium Health is one of just two health systems in the state that offers this treatment. Not only was Ed able to get a leading-edge form of chemotherapy, but he was able to get it close to home. Black went beyond her role as a liaison for the NFL DHN and connected Ed to treatments at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, providing him with some of the best oncology physicians in the region and saving him travel time.

This treatment allows us to deliver high-dose chemotherapy to the liver to treat malignant tumors with minimal side effects, says Dr. Perry Shen, one of Eds oncologists at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. Ed had a very positive attitude, and it is a privilege to take care of him.

Because his chemotherapy appointments were so close to home, Ed jokes, they were also closer to his favorite restaurants. Hed celebrate the end of each chemotherapy treatment with a stop for something good to eat.

If someone's diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and they go online to look at the prognosis, it is not a good prognosis. But these groundbreaking cancer treatments for advanced disease are prolonging patients' lives, Seminara says. That's what really matters.

When Ed finished his last chemotherapy treatment and rang the bell, he sent a picture of the moment to Black.

I really appreciated the fact he thought enough of me to include me in that moment, Black says. It was really exciting for me, too.

Now, Eds finished his chemotherapy and had a successful surgery. Hell have a follow-up colonoscopy in a year through the NFL DHN to continue monitoring his health.

During all of Eds unexpected health challenges cardiac arrhythmia and colon cancer he was part of a team. Doctors across facilities and specialties shared information electronically while Black kept Ed aware of each step - providing coordinated care.

He had a team at Atrium Health: a primary care/sports medicine doctor, a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, a surgical oncologist and an oncologist. It's extraordinary care that we offer to all of our patients here in the North Carolina region, Seminara says. Health care is a team sport.

And perhaps few people understand the importance of a close-knit team more than a former NFL player.

Due to Mr. Reynoldss background as a professional athlete, he realized the importance of a team approach to fight his cancer, says Dr. Caio Max S. Rocha Lima, another one of Eds oncologists at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. It takes a village to provide high-level cancer care. Im positive Mr. Reynolds felt that the multi-disciplinary care team was highly invested in his health.

That team approach supported Ed through surprise diagnoses, as well as the challenges and the victories that followed. Although a colonoscopy through the NFL DHNs Preventive Care benefit helped identify the cancer, Atrium Health went beyond their role with the Program to continue supporting Ed. Atrium Health made it a priority to ensure that Ed was referred to the best specialists for his cancer treatment.

We wanted to create a team, just like when I was playing football. Back then, I had the best doctors. Atrium Health is the best, too. Everything that went on during my cancer treatment, Dr. Martin, Dr. Shen and Dr. Seminara knew because they were all part of the Atrium Health system, Ed says. I'm absolutely here today because of the plan that was put in place and the immediacy of it.

Learn more about colon cancer screening and to make an appointment.

Note: Some services mentioned in this article may not have been covered through the NFL Dedicated Hospital Network Program and were a result of additional referrals through the Program.

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Atrium Health Creates a Life-Saving Game Plan - Atrium Health

Cardiology

Pargol Samani, MD, has been Inducted into the Prestigious Marquis … – 24-7 Press Release

She focuses her efforts on invasive cardiology, providing procedures such as angiograms, transesophageal echocardiography and pacemaker implantation.

SAN DIEGO, CA, March 21, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Pargol Samani, MD, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Leveraging more than a decade of excellence in cardiovascular research and medicine, Dr. Samani has earned distinction as a cardiologist with San Diego County Cardiology. Since 2017, she has focused her efforts on invasive cardiology, providing procedures such as angiograms, transesophageal echocardiography and pacemaker implantation. In treating her patients, both inpatient and outpatient, she emphasizes preventing cardiovascular diseases to limit a patient's risk factors. Additionally, she lends her expertise as a valued member of the American Medical Association, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the American College of Physicians and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Among her professional accomplishments, she is proud to have received recognition among San Diego's Top Doctors 2022 by the San Diego County Medical Society (SDCMS).

Prior to embarking on her professional journey, Dr. Samani earned a Doctor of Medicine from the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 2008. Spurred by the realization that the first reason for morbidity and mortality are cardiovascular diseases, many of which can be prevented, she completed a postdoctorate program at the cardiovascular research laboratory of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in 2011. Following this time, she underwent a residency in internal medicine at the Detroit Medical Center of Wayne State University. Finishing the program in 2014, she fulfilled a fellowship in cardiovascular disease with Kettering Medical Center in 2017.

Well-qualified in her field, Dr. Samani is certified in nuclear medicine by the American Board of Nuclear Medicine and in internal medicine and cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Accredited by the National Board of Echocardiography, she can provide adult transthoracic plus transesophageal echocardiography. She holds a medical license in California and was inducted as a fellow to the American College of Cardiology.

Within the coming years, Dr. Samani intends to grow her practice, enabling her to serve a larger patient population. As she strives to keep her practice up to date with the most recent cardiovascular treatments, medications and procedures, she plans to provide novel therapeutic and preventative options for her patients. She engages her patients in the decision-making process for their treatment plans, encouraging them to make any changes possible to have a positive impact on their future health.

About Marquis Who's Who:Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America, Marquis Who's Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Marquis celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2023, and Who's Who in America remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who website at http://www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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Pargol Samani, MD, has been Inducted into the Prestigious Marquis ... - 24-7 Press Release