Cast your vote for the Heart Team of the Year

Two specialist heart teams are vying to win the Heart Team of the Year Award at the first Global Cardiovascular Awards.

Readers of Cardiovascular News can cast their vote to decide which of the two teams will collect the award on 14 March 2024.

Meet the two entries below and follow the links to submit your vote. To get your ticket to attend the Global Cardiovascular Awards, click here.

THE VOTING DEADLINE IS 16 FEBRUARY 2024.

CHU de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France – Medico Surgical Unit of Acquired Cardiac Diseases

The Medico Surgical Unit of Acquired Cardiac Diseases at CHU de Bordeaux is a leader in treatment, education and research in the field of heart valve disease, and the Unit retains a staunch commitment to the treatment of patients using the multidisciplinary heart team approach.

The team are pioneers of new transcatheter approaches for structural heart disease that offer new options for patients, including being among the first in Europe to use the ShortCut device, aimed at preserving coronary access after valve-in-valve transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), as well as novel solutions in the mitral (including the first-in-man [FIM] transseptal Neochord implant, experience with the Amend annuloplasty, Alta valve, and Intrepid transseptal transcatheter mitral valve replacement [TMVR] system), tricuspid (Lux valve) and aortic valves.

The team leads several international studies exploring various options to treat valvular diseases as well as research and development projects in the field including heart valve imaging. The team is delivering research to create the first complete image guidance solution based on artificial intelligence (AI) for clinical decision-making to improve the adoption, patient selection and outcomes of transcatheter procedures.

The team gathers cardiac surgeons, interventional and imaging cardiologists in the same unit, who work together to decide on the best treatment options for the patient, including surgical or transcatheter approaches, avoiding any selection bias.

James Cook University Hospital (JCUH), Middlesbrough, UK – Cardiothoracic Team

The Cardiovascular Unit at the James Cook University Hospital (JCUH) in Middlesbrough was only founded 30 years ago but their team of cardiologists and surgeons are recognised as world leaders in the treatment and research of cardiovascular disease, particularly with regards to the management of patients with heart valve disease.

The JCUH TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation) team have pioneered many developments in the UK including the creation of the specialist nurse role to manage the TAVI patient pathway, single point-of-access referral for all patients with valve disease and percutaneous axillary access for TAVI (as an alternative to the standard femoral access).

Through continuous service optimisation the duration of stay for TAVI patients at JCUH has progressively fallen and is the shortest in the UK with an average hospital stay of just one day. As an extension to this, the team introduced a same day discharge programme for TAVI in 2018, allowing patients to be treated with no overnight stay in hospital. This was the first such programme in the world.

The benefits of a streamlined TAVI pathway were clearly demonstrated in 2023 when the JCUH TAVI team set a record of 10 successful TAVI procedures in one day, with seven patients receiving their new heart valve being admitted and returning home the same day.

The James Cook University Hospital has been recognised as an international Benchmark centre for TAVI and their consultants and specialist nurses proctor and educate other centres in the UK and Europe on optimisation of TAVI pathways. The valve pathways and TAVI service at JCUH were highlighted as exemplars for best practice in NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) guidance, distributed to all UK cardiac centres in 2023. It is expected that the service developments pioneered at JCUH will promote standardisation of TAVI pathways throughout the UK—resulting in better clinical outcomes, better patient experience and reduced NHS costs.