The Cardiovascular Professionals Seminar at the Washington Hospital Center

Designed to provide the most up-to-date information in the field of interventional cardiology, the daylong seminar featured presentations by the clinical and administrative staff of the cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs at WHC, a talk by the Assistant Director of Cardiology of Florida Hospitals, Kathryn Grace, as well as lectures by two of the most prominent cardiologists at WHC, Dr. Lowell Satler and Dr. William Suddath. Voncile Morrow, Director of Invasive Cardiology, opened the seminar in the conference theater of the CTEC with welcoming remarks and a brief history of the event before introducing Dr. Satler, who gave a comprehensive lecture on the first Grand Topic, Breakthroughs in Interventional Cardiology. He was followed by the guest speaker, Ms. Grace, whose topic Advantages to Cross-Training in the Cath Lab probably received the most rousing reception of the morning. Vendors from Cordis, The Medicines Company (Angiomax), Spectranetics, Guidant, and COR Therapeutics and Key Pharmacology (Integrilin) were allotted a brief amount of time for remarks or commentary on issues of their choice. Breakout sessions were held in the adjoining boardrooms on a variety of topics. Guided tours were conducted of the cath lab itself, where technologists and nurses gave hands-on demonstrations of a number of devices:  AngioJet (Possis, Inc.),  Rotablator (Boston Scientific)  PercuSurge (PercuSurge, Inc., a division of Medtronic AVE), and  Two brachytherapy systems: “ Beta-Cath (Novoste) “ Galileo (Guidant). This was followed by afternoon breakout sessions. The final two Grand Topics presented were Drug-Coated Stents in Restenosis Prevention, by Dr. Satler, and Emergencies in the Cath Lab, including actual case presentations, successfully presented for a second year in a row by Dr. Suddath. In her closing remarks, Ms. Morrow thanked the audience and faculty of WHC for their participation and individually recognized several key members of the seminar, including the Seminar Directors Kelly NcNeil-Jones, Filiz Demirci, Marc Petkus; the Catering Event Planners, headed by Debra Pendergrass, the seminar moderators, and the support team members. Finally, the audience was treated to a photo montage created by Steve Simms of WHC staffers at work, fittingly titled, Devotion. The academic event ended with a reception of wine, cheese, and pastries.

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