Fort Sanders Regional is the first hospital in TN to implement new cardiac technology
Dr. Joshua Todd, an interventional cardiologist at Covenant Health Fort Sanders Regional, has been a champion for implementing this technology at the hospital for select heart patients.
Covenant Health has long been viewed as one of the most innovative healthcare systems in the region. Last year, teknovation.biz covered the hospital system’s groundbreaking approach to ‘Advanced Care at Home’ and the Virtual Hospital initiative, which expanded the system’s reach into rural communities and increased care options for people struggling with chronic illness.
Now, the hospital system is at it again. About six months ago, Covenant Health introduced a new technology at its flagship hospital, Covenant Health Fort Sanders Regional, called the “CathWorks FFRangio® System,” which has enhanced the care physicians provide to cardiac patients. The technology is used for people who get coronary angiograms, which are essentially detailed images of the heart.
Covenant Health Fort Sanders Regional was the first hospital in Tennessee to adopt this advanced cardiac technology.
This is significant for the state since coronary heart disease is one of the top killers of adults in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast. Quick diagnosis and intervention are key to treating cardiac patients with heart disease, heart attack, or other events causing arterial blockages.
Dr. Joshua Todd, an interventional cardiologist at Covenant Health Fort Sanders Regional, has been a champion for implementing this technology at the hospital for select heart patients.
“Before this technology, clinicians relied on visualization of the angiogram to detect blocked arteries. Consensus for treatment of those arteries with stents is those that have more than 70 percent stenosis (blockage),” he said. “The challenge has always been how to accurately determine whether these blockages require stents.”
As Todd and his team evolved this process, they could gain objective information regarding the severity of the blockage by a technology called FFR (fraction flow reserve). In this procedure, called a heart catheterization, a wire is inserted into the artery to determine the blood flow ratio that allows the determination of severity. However, this procedure can come with a risk of arterial tears, dissections, or perforations.
As technology has advanced, his team can now use non-invasive images such as CT angiograms that determine both the stenosis and the significance of the blockage with a tool called “CathFlow.” This gives similar information to FF in terms of the function and significance of the blockage. CT scans are non-invasive tests that can give similar results without the risk of a catheter or wire-related vascular injury.
CathWorks is an innovative system that utilizes the same methodology as CathFlow. According to Dr. Todd, it saves both time for the hospital and money for the patient.
“We take our usual angiograms of the heart and input that data into software called CathWorks. Using artificial intelligence (AI), the system precisely measures the significance of the artery blocker and whether a stent is indicated, additional information also includes the blockage’s location and length—to the millimeter,” Dr. Todd explained.
The technology also provides clinicians with highly accurate recommendations for stent length and diameter, simplifying procedures and reducing long-standing complications.
Dr. Todd, with the support of Medtronic (CathWorks’ parent company), spent significant time training his team to integrate the CathWorks system into their daily workflow. The CathWorks team was on-site for three weeks to assist with the implementation strategy, and they provided the hospital system with 50 free trials. This allowed Dr. Todd to offer the service to 50 patients in need at no cost.
“Medtronic did this the right way,” Dr. Todd said, acknowledging that typically, technology in hospital systems nationwide has a slower rollout. “They provided all the equipment at no cost upfront and stayed with us for training. I think that approach helped the hospital feel more comfortable adopting the technology.”
Every day, new datasets are added to the software, further refining the AI. The CathWorks continues to be used at the hospital during cardiac catheterizations.
“Unlike hardware, AI software is incredibly flexible. It can improve within a day or two, which means our accuracy and efficiency increase daily,” he said.
With Covenant Health being the first hospital system in Tennessee to implement the CathWorks technology, Dr. Todd believes their cardiology team has a cutting-edge advantage in heart care.
Covenant Health is a client of PYA, the power behind teknovation.biz.
Read more about CathWorks from Covenant Health.
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