Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: Reanimated Hearts From Deceased Donors OK To Transplant
Stat: Reanimated Hearts Work Just As Well For Transplants, Study Finds
A new method of heart transplantation that uses machines to reanimate donor hearts from people who have died is just as good as traditional heart transplantation, a new study finds. If adopted broadly in the U.S., the procedure that could expand the donor pool by 30%. (Chen, 6/7)
AP: Newer Heart Transplant Method Could Allow More Patients A Chance At Lifesaving Surgery
The usual method of organ donation occurs when doctors, through careful testing, determine someone has no brain function after a catastrophic injury — meaning they’re brain-dead. The body is left on a ventilator that keeps the heart beating and organs oxygenated until they’re recovered and put on ice. In contrast, donation after circulatory death occurs when someone has a nonsurvivable brain injury but, because all brain function hasn’t yet ceased, the family decides to withdraw life support and the heart stops. That means organs go without oxygen for a while before they can be recovered — and surgeons, worried the heart would be damaged, left it behind. What’s changed: Now doctors can remove those hearts and put them in a machine that “reanimates” them, pumping through blood and nutrients as they’re transported –- and demonstrating if they work OK before the planned transplant. (Neergaard, 6/7)
In other cardiac news —
The Boston Globe: Hospital Failures Cited In Report On Heart Surgeon Yvon Baribeau
Leadership at New Hampshire’s Catholic Medical Center missed numerous “early warning signal[s]” in handling a series of challenges involving a troubled former top heart surgeon, concluded a sobering new report from an outside law firm commissioned by the hospital. (Ostriker, 6/7)
Tribune News Service: Researchers Created A Pocket-Size Blood Pressure Monitor That Attaches To A Smartphone
Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a new kind of blood pressure monitor that’s small enough to fit in your pocket and attaches to a smartphone. The team out of the Jacobs School of Engineering outlined their invention and findings in a paper that was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Scientific Reports, last week. (6/7)
