The CardioVascular Interventions Summit Looks at What's Next in Heart Health

What started as an annual?Tucson Medical Center ?lecture series 14 years ago has grown into a two-day summit on a critical medical topic: cardiovascular health and related life-saving procedures.?

The CardioVascular Interventions Summit, which now attracts an international audience, is scheduled for February 16-17 at the? El Conquistador Tucson, A Hilton Resort , ?10000 N. Oracle Rd. Interested parties can register at?cvisummit.com/registration . Remote viewing, through a global live stream, is also available.

There will be six live procedures broadcast for participants to follow this year, as well as one pre-recorded procedure, with expert panelists there to discuss the ongoing procedures and technologies.?This includes the management of aortic and mitral valve disease, cardiogenic shock, and the left atrial appendage.?

Dr. Neil Gheewala ?became director of the summit in 2020, and he will be leading one of the live surgeries from TMC this year. The summit is sponsored by TMC and? Pima Heart & Vascular .

“Now that we have a bigger footprint, as a cardiovascular center, my vision was to see how we could build a meeting where we have national and international experts come and educate our local community,” said Dr. Gheewala, a?structural interventional cardiologist who specializes in coronary artery disease and heart valve disorders.?

Dr. Thomas E. Waggoner, DO, FACC, FSCAI, FSVM, RPVI , director?of TMC’s? Structural Heart Program and Cardiovascular Research Program, joins this year as co-director of CVIS. Together,? Dr. Gheewala and Dr. Waggoner have grown CVIS into a two-day meeting.?with 31 nationally and internationally recognized experts in the field of cardiovascular medicine. Gheewala said their combined enthusiasm will continue to bring cutting-edge medical education to Southern Arizona.?

“CVIS is a leading edge, technology-driven contemporary cardiovascular summit, focusing on minimally invasive, catheter based cardiovascular procedures, driven by robust research programs to expand new device indications and adopt early cardiovascular technologies,” Dr. Waggoner said.

?“We have performed over 65 procedural firsts with many of these new technologies in both FDA approved clinical trials and commercialized devices as early adopters.”

Guests this year include?Dr. William O’Neill, ?who has pioneered angioplasty for heart attack treatment and developed catheter-based treatments for structural heart disease.?Dr. Saibal Kar ?will also be a faculty member.?Dr. Kar performed the?first transcatheter mitral valve repair procedure (MitraClip)?in the United States.?

The live cases will be transmitted from four local sites, focusing on the comparative effectiveness of new technologies, particularly in the field of structural heart interventions which, Dr. Waggoner said, utilizes minimally invasive catheter-based approaches for procedures, like new heart valve implantations rather than open, conventional thoracic surgery.

The event was started by?Dr. Gulshan Sethi , now the summit’s director emeritus, and Julia Strange , vice president of external affairs and brand for TMC Health.? In the years since the gatherings started, Dr. Gheewala said, "there has been a?technological revolution” in the last decade that’s “really changed things for heart patients.”

?However, he said, the number of people in need of these procedures has not diminished.

“Heart disease continues to win, and incidence continues to grow, which means we have to be even more focused on being able to deliver novel treatments,” Dr. Gheewala said.?