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September 12, 2007
Yvonne Galliano
September 14, 2007
The Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) hosted its eighth annual New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) conference in New Orleans and it didn’t honor a doctor for the first time in its history.
Instead, it honored Earl Bakken, the founder of the largest medical technology company in the world, Medtronic, and the inventor of the pacemaker.
CIS founder, president and media director Dr. Craig Walker described Bakken simply as the man who brought electricity to medicine.
“He’s a very, very special man, who really all of us, not just in medicine, all of us in mankind, owe a great debt of gratitude to,” said Walker. “Even in a wheelchair-bound state in his 80s, he is still, to this second, thinking about what can he do to improve people’s lives.”
“I have yet to meet a person who didn’t leave a meeting with Earl Bakken inspired,” said Walker.
Previous honorees include the inventor of the stent, Dr. Julio Palmaz; the inventor of the first balloon used in vascular medicine, Dr. Thomas Fogarty; and the inventor of the sternal saw for bypass surgery, Dr. Edward Dietrich.
“It’s been exciting for us not just to get to honor these people, but to – over the years – to have developed friendships and respect with these peoples,” said Walker. “These people routinely speak with us. It really strengthens our Houma medical community to have access to the world’s who’s who as friends.”
The conference is the fourth largest cardiology conference in the nation and the largest cardiovascular conference in the world.
It offered comprehensive multidisciplinary educational sessions for each specialty.
Walker said about 25 procedures with live Louisianans were set up to show medical specialists “what can be done.”
Walker pointed to the problem of patients suffering from critical limb ischemia (the restriction of blood supply) often becoming amputees.
“In almost every one of those patients we can save the limb and make the pain go away with interventions,” said Walker. “Despite that, the first option given across most of America to people present with that is amputation.”
“That may have been OK 20 or 30 years ago when we did not have effective treatments. That is not right now,” he added.
The conference showcased techniques and procedures designed to repair limbs, avoid amputation and dramatically increase a patient’s chance of survival.
Walker said if a leg is amputated just below the knee, there is a five to eight percent chance within 30 days the patient will die.
If the leg is amputated above the knee, there is an eight to 12 percent chance within 30 days the patient will die.
And these percentages are from amputations conducted in the best medical centers in the United States.
“Part of this (NCVH) is not just to show those people doing the interventions how to do them, but to show those right now who just simply treat patients to understand it is wrong to send a patient to get an amputation, because there are very viable options,” Walker said.
Walker and Dr. David Allie of CIS served as co-chairman for the conference.
CIS spearheaded the conference’s founding back in 2000 to educate and train medical professionals, including physicians, podiatrists, nurses, physician assistants and medical technologists.
This year’s conference included the third annual International Multidisciplinary CLI Summit and the second annual Global Endovenous and DVT Summit Live “Limb Salvage” Cases by CIS.
Renowned physicians from around the world attended as guest lecturers for the seminars at the NCVH. The seminars included talks by CIS physicians Dr. Richard Abben, Dr. Peter Fail, Dr. Antoine Keller, Dr. Michael McElderry, Dr. Raghotham Patlola, Dr. Michael Trotter and Dr. Kalyan Veerina.
Walker and Allie also spoke and CIS CEO David Konur gave a guest lecture from an administrative standpoint.
Walker said last year’s conference saw approximately 4,000 participants.
CIS has 11 clinics spread out across southern Louisiana with 40 physicians, 500 employees and patients from every state and 40 or more foreign countries.
Physicians gathered in New Orleans last week for the eighth annual New Cardiovascular Horizons conference, which was hosted by the Cardiovascular Institute of the South. This year’s event honored Earl Bakken, the founder of the largest medical technology company in the world, Medtronic, and the inventor of the pacemaker. * Photo courtesy of CARDIOVASCULAR INSTITUTE OF THE SOUTH
