Results tagged “Innovators at Heart”

A University of Minnesota surgeon and two interventional cardiologists put their heads together to find a better treatment option for grandmother Patti Taylor, who has faced a host of medical problems throughout her life and wasn't a good candidate for open-heart surgery.

The latest issue of Innovators at Heart is now available in print and online.

It’s taken personal tragedy, years of research, and a mysterious late-night epiphany for Marie Guion Johnson, Ph.D., to develop a promising new medical device that can detect coronary-artery blockage. Her invention, called the CADence™, is a noninvasive handheld tool that she hopes eventually will be used as a functional test for people at high risk of developing heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

You could call it a long-term, heartfelt commitment. In addition to its large, ongoing research contract, Medtronic recently committed another $350,000 to the University of Minnesota’s Visible Heart® Laboratory—the only place in the world where human hearts (donated, not suitable for transplantation) are reanimated so scientists can see exactly how they work from the inside.

On September 2, 1952, a sickly Jacqueline Johnson came to the University of Minnesota Hospitals for help. Jacqueline, the 5-year-old daughter of traveling carnival workers, had an atrial septal defect that needed repair—a repair that had never been done before. But pioneering University surgeon F. John Lewis, M.D., Ph.D., took the bold move of attempting the fix.

Though he's still early in his medical career, Demetris Yannopoulos, M.D., isn't waiting to make his mark on the field of cardiology. He is considered an authority in cardiorespiratory interactions and hypothermia during CPR, and his work in has already helped to improve CPR practices—thereby saving lives of people who need it.

Experts at the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart Institute and the School of Public Health have developed a program to spread the word about steps Minnesotans can take to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. To start, the program will highlight the benefits of taking low-dose aspirin daily. Called "Partners in Prevention," the pilot program rolled out in Hibbing earlier this year. "Why should any Minnesotan, or American, suffer a preventable heart attack or stroke?" asks Alan T. Hirsch, M.D., director of this new initiative and the University's vascular medicine program. "This campaign is all about prevention."

In 1952, Eisenhower became president, Hasbro introduced Mr. Potato Head, gas cost 20 cents a gallon, and, at the University of Minnesota, doctors performed the world's first successful open-heart surgery. Jay Pearson was just 4 years old when he was admitted to the University's Variety Club Children's Heart Hospital on March 28, 1952, for an early heart surgery that preceded the history-making procedure by mere months.

Music superstar Barry Manilow thrilled the nearly 800 guests of this year's Red Hot Soirée, a gala benefit for the Lillehei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota. The event, held April 14 at the Depot in Minneapolis, raised almost $690,000 for heart health research and education at the University.

If you would like to support groundbreaking research at the University of Minnesota and also receive steady income for life, a charitable gift annuity may be right for you. Through a simple contract, you agree to make a donation of cash, stocks, or other assets to the Minnesota Medical Foundation. In return, we agree to pay you a fixed amount each year for the rest of your life.

Meet Peter Eckman, M.D., part of the new generation of cardiovascular physician-scientists continuing to further the University of Minnesota's decades-long leadership in heart research and care.

Traditional heart imaging methods may not always provide enough information for physicians to understand the cause of a patient’s symptoms or plan the best treatment. The new frontier in advanced imaging includes cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), and PET (positron emission tomography), which open up a whole new level of information for every area of cardiovascular medicine.

Traditional imaging techniques work well most of the time. But sometimes the next level of imaging is needed to solve a puzzle, as in the case of a 42-year-old man who was having breathing problems and passing out repeatedly.

Demetris Yannopoulos, M.D., and a group of collaborators aim to improve survival rates after sudden cardiac arrest—when the heart unexpectedly stops beating—by at least 50 percent in five years through an innovative implementation and awareness effort called the HeartRescue Project. The goal? For every American who suffers sudden cardiac arrest to receive evidence-based, state-of-the-art care at the scene, en route to the hospital, and at the hospital.

For one special group of students, summer isn’t about waiting tables, babysitting, or hanging out at the mall. Instead, they’ll be working side by side with researchers from the Lillehei Heart Institute, learning about everything from stem cell therapies to career paths in cardiovascular medicine through the Summer Research Scholars Program.

When the University of Minnesota's new, state-of-the-art cancer and cardiovascular research building is complete in 2013, it will bring top researchers together across disciplines to discover the next generation of cancer and heart therapies.

Minnesotans are less likely than the average American to die of heart disease. The reason? Likely because, compared with national averages, Minnesotans smoke less, and fewer of us have high blood pressure.

The first-ever Red Hot Soirée, held April 30 at the Depot in Minneapolis, raised approximately $400,000 for the Lillehei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Michael Johnson would have been shocked to learn last summer that his heart would fail by fall. Then came September 6, 2010, when he suffered a massive heart attack. While recovering at Fairview Southdale Hospital and facing a future limited by significant heart failure, Johnson got another surprise: University of Minnesota researchers asked him to participate in an innovative cell therapy study that might improve his prognosis. He agreed, and 10 days after his heart attack, doctors injected 150 million of Johnson's own stem cells from his bone marrow into his heart.

Sally and John Turrittin's son, Jeff, was born 29 years ago with a heart defect called aortic valve stenosis. So when Jeff was 12 or 13 years old and Sally Turrittin found a magazine article about researchers who were developing a way to grow a heart valve in the lab, it piqued her interest.