JERSEY SHORE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER AND HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER ARE LEADING THE WAY IN STRUCTURAL HEART CARE AND RESEARCH, OFFERING COMPREHENSIVE, MINIMALLY INVASIVE TREATMENTS OF HEART VALVE CONDITIONS, PIONEERING TRIALS, AND THE LATEST DEVICES
BY LISA BUFFINGTON • PHOTOS BY AMESSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Patients with heart valve disorders or other structural heart conditions need access to the latest, safest, and most minimally invasive treatment options delivered by experienced cardiac specialists. The expert care and advanced clinical trials now available at Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center mean that New Jersey residents don’t have to travel far to find it.
“Our program at Jersey Shore has experienced year-overyear growth in patient volumes, and we are among the top 10% of hospitals in the U.S. for the number of structural heart procedures we perform,” said Matthew Saybolt, M.D., Structural Heart Program director at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. “Our patient outcomes also meet or exceed national standards of excellence.”
Looking forward, the team is excited to move into a new multi-million-dollar, dedicated cardiology suite in the coming year with ten mixed-use interventional, electrophysiologic, and structural heart disease laboratories to meet the community’s growing heart care needs.
Additionally, Hackensack University Medical Center has the highest volume MitraClip program in the state of New Jersey, and the team is among the highest-volume MitraClip groups in the nation. It’s no surprise that these experts are involved in groundbreaking trials.
Access to Pioneering Clinical Trials
Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center participate in numerous national, multicenter clinical trials. These trials are designed to advance the treatment of valve and other structural heart disorders, test the use of new devices and techniques, and discover new uses for currently available therapies.
“In addition to our high patient volumes, extensive experience, and excellent structural heart outcomes, we have strong relationships with industry innovators who are developing new devices and techniques to advance structural heart care,” said Dr. Saybolt. “Our track record of success and experience enables us to support pioneering research, and that means we are chosen to be part of a select group of hospitals in the U.S. that offer the latest clinical trials.”
“Clinical trials allow patients to be treated with leading-edge therapies that often won’t be available to the public for years,“ said Ryan K. Kaple, M.D., FACC, FSCAI, director of the Structural and Congenital Heart Program at Hackensack University Medical Center. “With clinical trials, we can offer patients with complex conditions options and alternatives, not just the standard of care.”
Current clinical trials at Hackensack Meridian Health include:
APOLLO
The goal of this study is to expand the uses for minimally invasive mitral valve replacement. This would provide a new option for people who aren’t eligible for other mitral valve regurgitation treatments. Jersey Shore is the only site in southern New Jersey – and one of only two in the state – that is participating in the APOLLO trial. Through participation in this national study, patients who are not candidates for traditional mitral valve replacement surgery or MitraClip valve repair and have no other options can receive minimally invasive care (available at Jersey Shore).
REPAIR MR
The goal of the REPAIR MR trial is to determine if it is safe, effective, and beneficial to offer MitraClip as an alternative to surgery in patients with an intermediate surgical risk. Jersey Shore University Medical Center is the only hospital in central New Jersey and one of only three in the state that is participating in REPAIR MR (available at Jersey Shore).
CORCINCH-HF
This study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the catheter-based AccuCinch Ventricular Restoration System in patients who have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, a type of heart failure that happens when the heart’s lower left chamber doesn’t pump out enough blood (available at Hackensack and Jersey Shore).
PROGRESS
The structural heart team recently completed the national, multicenter PROGRESS trial, which was comparing outcomes of patients with moderate symptoms associated with the narrowing of the aortic valve who underwent a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) versus active monitoring (available at Jersey Shore).
SUMMIT
is trial is studying the safety and e‑ ectiveness of the Tendyne Transcatheter Mitral Valve System for the treatment of symptomatic mitral regurgitation when compared to MitraClip. Unlike MitraClip, which is used to repair the mitral valve, Tendyne is a catheter-based platform to replace the mitral valve completely (available at Hackensack).
TricValve
Patients with symptomatic tricuspid regurgitation may be candidates for the TricValve clinical trial. is is a procedure where a valve is placed in the two large veins leading to the heart using catheters to treat the e‑ ects of tricuspid regurgitation (available at Hackensack).
PARADIGM
Hackensack University Medical Center is one of up to 25 medical centers worldwide participating in this trial for patients with clinically signi cant paravalvular leak (PVL) who are eligible for transcatheter closure (available at Hackensack).
Both Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center employ a team approach to structural heart care. With so many advanced structural heart treatment options available, each cardiovascular team works together to determine the best-t approach for each patient.
“Our experts include cardiologists, structural heart experts, cardiac surgeons, interventional cardiologists, cardiac imaging experts, nurse practitioners, and others who meet weekly to review each patient’s case,” said Dr. Saybolt. “Each patient’s treatment plan will be based on the opinions and recommendations of multiple cardiac subspecialists, which allows us to deliver coordinated, personalized care.”
Jersey Shore University Medical Center
1945 NJ-33, Neptune Township
Hackensack University Medical Center
30 Prospect Ave, Hackensack