From world-first procedures to county-level achievements, here are 15 recent cardiology firsts:
Note: This list is updated periodically and is not exhaustive.
- Cleveland-based University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute became the first site in Ohio to clinically administer Flyrcado for the detection of coronary artery disease and arterial blockages.
- Surgeons from Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital and USF Health, also based in Tampa, partnered to perform the world’s first recorded bloodless heart-liver transplant.
- A Houston-based Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center team performed the first fully robotic adult heart transplant in the U.S.
- Surgeons at Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine’s Heart and Vascular Institute performed the world’s first robotic transcatheter aortic valve replacement explant and aortic valve replacement.
- A team of surgeons at New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System performed the first heart-liver-kidney transplant in the state.
- The cardiac surgery team at Washington, D.C.-based Children’s National Hospital became the first in the world to replace an artificial heart valve with a live tissue valve through a partial heart transplant.
- A team from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the first in the world to study the use of genetically engineered pig hearts for infants waiting for heart transplantation.
- New York City-based NYU Langone appointed Noritsugu Naito, MD, PhD, to serve as NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn’s first chief of cardiac surgery.
- A team at New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center performed its first pediatric heart transplant March 28.
- A 10-year-old child survived 24 days on an artificial heart at Ann-Arbor-based University of Michigan Health’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, becoming the first child in Michigan to receive a total artificial heart.
- A team from Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke’s University Health Network became the first in its region to perform a transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement using the Evoque system.
- A team from Charleston, W.Va.-based Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center in Morgantown, W.Va., became the first in the state to use both the Watchman FLX Pro and the Farapulse pulsed field ablation systems during a single procedure for a patient with atrial fibrillation.
- A team from Stony Brook (N.Y) University Hospital became the first in the Long Island area to use HeartFlow Plaque Analysis AI technology for examining coronary artery blockages in patients with suspected heart disease.
- The vascular surgery team at West Orange, N.J.-based RJWBarnabas Health’s Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, N.J., implanted its first neuromodulation device for the treatment of heart failure symptoms, the Barostim implant.
- The cardiac surgery team at Washington, D.C.-based Children’s National Hospital became the first in the world to replace an artificial heart valve with a live tissue valve through a partial heart transplant.
- A team from Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center performed a procedure utilizing the ShortCut leaflet modification device, marking the first time the device was used commercially in the U.S.
- A team from Patel Children’s Heart Institute at Tampa, Fla.-based St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital became the first in the southeastern U.S. to implant the Renata Minima stent, which is designed to enlarge narrowed blood vessels in the hearts of newborns and infants.
- Nels Carroll, MD, a cardiologist at Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Los Robles Health System, performed the first robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass grafting procedure in Ventura County.
- An Australian man became the first person in the world to be discharged with a BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart.
- A team from Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health performed the world’s first living mitral valve replacement after a heart transplant patient donated healthy valves from their original heart to two other patients.
- A team at Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine’s Heart and Vascular Institute performed the first transcatheter tricuspid valve replacements in the state and region.
- A team from Charleston, S.C.-based MUSC Health’s Heart and Vascular Center became the first in the country to implant the Topaz device, a new transcatheter tricuspid heart valve replacement system.
- A team at Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital performed the first Balloon-Assisted Translocation of the Mitral Anterior Leaflet, or BATMAN, procedure in the state.
- Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health appointed Jose Baez-Escudero, MD, as the first systemwide chief of cardiology.
- A team at Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare’s Children’s Hospital of Illinois became the first in the world to implant an extravascular implantable, cardioverter-defibrillator in a pediatric patient who had suffered sudden cardiac arrest.