June 28, 2021 – Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute at Baptist Hospital and South Miami Hospital has received Transcatheter Valve Certification from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). The honor recognizes the expertise of the program in offering an innovative alternative to open-heart surgery for some patients who require heart valve repair or replacement. 
 
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive procedure performed via a small catheter that is inserted through a blood vessel in the groin or through a small incision under the collarbone or between the ribs. It is used to treat aortic stenosis, a disease that restricts the movement of the aortic valve and causes chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath and other life-limiting problems. Severe aortic stenosis can also lead to heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest.
 
“Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute has always been at the forefront of breakthroughs in cardiovascular care,” said Barry Katzen, M.D., founder and chief medical executive of the Institute. “This certification validates the excellence of our program, awarding us for meeting or exceeding clinical standards, patient outcomes, quality of care and other guidelines.”
 
The Institute leads numerous cardiovascular clinical trials – many of which focus on less invasive approaches – and was the first in South Florida to perform TAVR outside of a research trial. TAVR was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 as a safer option for patients at high risk for open-heart surgery. In 2019, they expanded the approval to include patients considered at low risk for complications or death with open-heart surgery. The Institute also offers the new BASILICA treatment, which is done immediately before TAVR for a subset of patients identified as at risk for developing a coronary artery obstruction during TAVR.
 
“Certification recognizes our experience, multidisciplinary team approach, extensive training and excellent results,” said Ramon Quesada, M.D., medical director of Structural Heart and Complex Percutaneous Coronary Intervention at the Institute. “With new devices and technologies, we are able to offer minimally invasive procedures to more patients. Our community can be confident that we are a top center in the nation for these procedures.”
 
The ACC evaluation includes quality of care, clinical outcomes and patient experience, performance improvement initiatives, participation and review of data from national registries, staff credentialing and education, infection control processes and equipment safety.
 
About Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute
Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute is the largest and most comprehensive cardiovascular facility in the region. The team of multilingual, multidisciplinary specialists pioneered the development of minimally invasive techniques used to treat aneurysms, blockages in veins and arteries and holes in the heart. The Institute leverages the power of Baptist Health’s combined resources of experts, pioneering research, compassionate caregivers and leading-edge treatments and technology.
Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute is part of Baptist Health South Florida, the largest healthcare organization in the region, with 11 hospitals, more than 23,000 employees, 4,000 physicians and 100 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities and physician practices spanning across Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Baptist Health has internationally renowned centers of excellence in cancer, cardiovascular care, orthopedics and sports medicine, and neurosciences. In addition, it includes Baptist Health Medical Group; Baptist Health Quality Network; and Baptist Health Care On Demand, a virtual health platform. A not-for-profit organization supported by philanthropy and committed to its faith-based charitable mission of medical excellence, Baptist Health has been recognized by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America and by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit BaptistHealth.net/Newsroom and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
 


Cleveland Clinic’s Weston Hospital has performed its first living donor liver transplant, in which a daughter donated a portion of her liver to her mother who had been battling complicated liver disease for several years.

The donor and recipient surgeries were performed in Weston by a team of surgeons from Cleveland Clinic Weston and Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which has one of the nation’s largest living donor liver transplant programs.
 
On May 10, 2021, Cristiano Quintini, M.D., director of Liver Transplantation at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and Weston Hospital transplant surgeons Samer Ebaid, M.D., Ph.D., and Phoenix Vuong, M.D., removed 60 percent of the right lobe of 38 year-old Heidy Lima’s liver through an abdominal incision.
 
In an operating room nearby, Koji Hashimoto, M.D., Ph.D., director of Living Donor Liver Transplantation at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Antonio Pinna, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic Weston’s Abdominal Transplant Center, and Weston transplant surgeon Sidharth Sharma, M.D., successfully transplanted the donated portion of Lima’s liver to her mother, 60-year old Iris Blanco.
 
“The collaboration between our transplant team in Weston and our colleagues in Ohio has been exceptional, allowing us to take this step forward and meet a critical need for living donor liver transplant services in South Florida, “said Conor Delaney, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic’s Florida region. “As an integrated healthcare delivery system, we continue to expand our ability to provide multidisciplinary, complex care and improve the quality of life for our patients and their families.”
 


Palm Health Foundation, Palm Beach County’s community foundation for health, has provided a grant to the Promise Fund of Florida to increase access to affordable breast and cervical health care services to women in need. The funding will support the hire of a “provider network recruiter” who will identify new and existing community resources to expand Promise Fund of Florida’s Continuum of Care Model throughout Palm Beach County to increase health equity and help reach its goal of ensuring all women, regardless of income, receive affordable, timely, high quality, breast and cervical screenings, diagnostics, treatment, and follow up care. Palm Health Foundation joins Quantum Foundation in jointly funding this new position.

The Promise Fund of Florida was co-founded by Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen, Julie Fisher Cummings, and Laurie Silvers, three women who have spent decades working to improve quality of life for men and women of all socioeconomic backgrounds in many different areas of need. They founded the Promise Fund of Florida to fill the gaps in access to healthcare and help those in need in Palm Beach County to reduce the number of deaths due to late-stage breast and cervical cancer. Florida ranks last in the United States for the number of women under 65 who have insurance, magnifying their vulnerability to death from cancer because the lack of insurance delays diagnosis and treatment with catastrophic results.
 
The provider network recruiter will play a critical role in developing partnerships closest to target populations where multiple barriers to care exist, including transportation, language, finding childcare and taking time off from work. The Promise Fund has mapped imaging and screening facilities in Palm Beach County to identify gaps and serve as a blueprint for where the provider network recruiter will create partnerships for affordable cancer care services with physicians, clinics, hospitals, and other providers for Promise Fund participants. The goal is to identify a minimum of 15 health care providers to serve 300 or more women.
 


Five Nicklaus Children’s Hospital specialty programs are again identified among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2021-22 “Best Children’s Hospitals” rankings. Nicklaus Children’s continues to be the region’s pediatric specialty care leader, with more ranked pediatric programs than any other hospital in South Florida. In addition, this year’s rankings identify Nicklaus Children’s as among the best pediatric hospitals in Florida, as well as in the southeastern region of the U.S.

Nicklaus Children’s 2021-22 rankings are as follows:
– Cardiology and Heart Surgery, #46 (highest ranked program in South Florida)
– Diabetes and Endocrinology, #49
– Neurology and Neurosurgery, #24 (only ranked program in South Florida)
– Orthopedics, #40
– Pulmonology, #36 (only ranked program in South Florida)


Michelle Cartwright
Chief Financial Officer
 
Michelle Cartwright serves as the Chief Financial Officer for the Palm Beach Health Network and Delray Medical Center. In her role, Cartwright is responsible for overseeing the financial operations for Delray Medical Center and the other Palm Beach Health Network hospitals, including Good Samaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center. Cartwright has held financial leadership positions at St. Mary’s Medical Center & Palm Beach Children’s Hospital for more than a decade. Prior to being named CFO, she was a senior accountant, and then promoted to the role of assistant controller. Cartwright was later promoted to controller, and then to the CFO position at the hospital. She has helped lead growth initiatives for the highly acute and specialized services the hospitals offer. Cartwright received her Bachelor’s Degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University, and went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Accounting from Nova Southeastern University, and is a licensed Florida CPA .