GW Heart Failure section has continued to grow over the past few years. The section takes a truly multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach and comprises of an experienced and compassionate team. The section offers a spectrum of heart failure related care starting from prevention to advanced heart failure management including Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) and transplantation. The heart failure team includes: Dr. Gurusher Panjrath, Dr. Richard Katz, heart failure nurse practitioner Linda Bostrom, heart failure nurses and LVAD coordinators Ashley Young and Erin Breen, nutritionist Kelli Metzger, social worker Leah Vandermark, and community health workers Kim Desormeaux and Sawa Kamara. The team offers a range of services including: a comprehensive heart failure disease management clinic, cardiomyopathy center, an outpatient intravenous diuretic program, a robust and successful readmission reduction program involving community health workers, advanced heart failure clinic and evaluation, implantation and management of left ventricular assist devices and evaluation for heart transplantation. The team comprises of talented nurses, nurse practitioners, community health workers, board certified heart failure cardiologists , dieticians and social worker and finance specialist. The heart failure team works closely and collaboratively with cardiac imaging specialist, electrophysiologist, interventional cardiologist and cardiac surgeons to tailor care to individual patient needs. The section is also involved in a wide range of research activities and continues to present abstracts and presentations both nationally and internationally and publish research papers.
Highlights of the clinical program:
- Heart Failure Disease Management Clinic
- Nurse practitioner supervised Diuretic clinic
- Cardio-Oncology program
- Cardiomyopathy Center involving a multidisciplinary approach on inherited and infiltrative cardiomyopathies (such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, sarcoidosis, amyloidosis) including multimodality imaging, endomyocardial biopsy, genetic testing, immunosuppressant
- Readmission Reduction Program involving Community Health Workers
- Food and nutritional security program in partnership with Food and Friends
- Advanced Heart Failure Program offering latest technology durable left ventricular assist devices and short term mechanical circulatory devices
- CRM Device Based HF Diagnostics
- Palliative and bridge to decision Home inotropes program
Newer procedures and therapies soon to be available:
- CardioMEMS
- Iv therapies for Familial amyloid polyneuropathy
- Access to ongoing drug and device based clinical trials
