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February 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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doing our own clinical research. In
2006, we developed a separate entity,
the Lexington Cardiac Research
Foundation. The Foundation not only
does electro-physiology research, but
also general cardiology, interventional
cardiology, and cardio-thoracic protocols.
Getting to
the Heart of
Device Trials
Q
A
Q
A
Fiona Young-Brown: Are there
any heart health aspects specific to
Kentucky that you have noticed?
By Fiona Young-Brown
Dr. Tomassoni: Kentucky’s population is at high risk for developing
heart failure from underlying coronary disease and atrial fibrillation, so
the area and our research fit very well.
Fiona Young-Brown: And how
receptive are patients to the idea of
participating in a trial?
Given the regional community’s
high rates of heart disease, Baptist
Health Lexington considers it vital
to offer patients access to the most
advanced technology and therapies
through participation in clinical trials. A little over a year ago, I met
with Dr. Gery Tomassoni, medical
director of the hospital’s research
entity, Lexington Cardiac Research
Foundation, to learn about some of
the Foundation’s work. The information he provided still proves useful for
those considering participation in a
heart device trial.
Q
A
Fiona Young-Brown: Can you
tell us a little about how you got
started in clinical research?
Dr. Tomassoni: I’m an electrophysiologist, dealing with electrical
abnormalities of the heart. I started
out as an assistant professor at the
University of Kentucky Medical
Center. That’s where we started doing
some of the research protocols that we
now do here. After a year or so, I came
to Baptist Health Lexington.
Our first few years doing clinical
research were mainly doing IDE trials
– clinical trials for individual device
companies in the electrophysiology
world. When they have a new device,
in order to get it approved, they
submit an IDE trial which usually
involves multiple sites in the United
States.
Then we also started doing our
own research here at Baptist X[